THE PERKS OF GETTING OLD.....................................

Tomorrow will be my 67th Thanksgiving......    It isn't what it use to be......  Sure we'll eat turkey and dressing and ham with all the usual fixings.....  We'll tell stories of old times and laugh until tears roll down our cheeks and our bellies hurt.....  It will be a great time but it will be different.......  HMMMMM you say to yourself........ and then you ask......." You mean to tell me you don't like Thanksgiving anymore?".......  And I answer......  "I love Thanksgiving......  Different isn't a bad thing,  it can be better."  You see,  I use to would tell you I'm thankful for family, but now,   "NOW"  I've learned to set back......... to slow down and really see and appreciate family.  I've learned to look at the things that give me that happy feeling all over.

You see,,,now I'm not just thankful because they are my Grandkids but I'm thankful for what some would call the little things that I now see.  I'm thankful when I get a call from a grandchild and the first word out of their mouth is,  "I just wanted to call and say hi and see how you are doing."  I'm thankful for family vacations when we are all together and I'm still made to think I am wanted on the fishing expedition.  I'm thankful when I show up at the little league game and when the little one sees me and his face lights up as he waves and then he points at me and tells one of his teammates  ..."That's my PaPa."  I'm thankful for the times when the phone rings and one of the Grandkids ask,  "Are you going to be home for a while,  I want you to meet someone."  And when one of them has car problems or needs help with a project or has a question about how to fix something,  I'm thankful that they know Peggy and I are there and they can depend on us to try to help.

 And I'm not  thankful just because they are our Kids,  I'm thankful for  the people and parents they have grown up to be.  I'm thankful for the love I see that they have for each other.  I'm thankful when I see them give of themselves to someone less fortunate.  I'm thankful for the compassion each of them have.  I'm thankful for the priorities they have set up in their lives.  I'm thankful for the parents they are.  I'm thankful that they still know our house is their house.

 I'm thankful that when the boys,  and maybe the girls too, go out tomorrow afternoon to throw the football around,  they will still ask this old man if he wants to go out with them and I'm thankful that as they make sure all are included,  even the little ones,  I will see a love that isn't man made but can only come from up above.  I'm thankful that as I get in the car in the morning to go pickup a newspaper with all the sales papers, that the car will have plenty of gas and I don't have to stop and fill it up in the cold of morning.  I'm thankful for the laughter I will hear as  the sales papers pass from hand to hand and the joy and excitement that will be in the air as our Christmas get together is talked of and plans are made.

Yes.....  As I think about it,  getting old has it's perks.  My eyes aren't as good as they once were,  but now I see more clearly.  My ears aren't what they once were but now it seems I hear more.  My old legs don't carry me as far or as fast as they once did,  but now I notice more as I travel through this life.  And now that my heart has  been taken out of my body,  bypasses done and a pig valve implanted,   it seems I feel things in a different way and I like it...........

When I get down on these old worn out knees and ask for God's blessings,  What I am really asking God for is to be happy.  Well,  today, I am a blessed,  for you see,   I am Happy ........  My prayers have been answered......  Yes,  once again I say......Thanksgiving isn't what it use to be.......It's much much better.

TODAY MY PRAYER IS THAT YOU HAVE A GREAT AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY.   MAY GOD BLESS YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!