Enjoying God’s bounty this Thanksgiving

Thanks to Fr. Sunny’s homily that we should not feel guilty about enjoying God’s blessings while there are millions of people back home in the Philippines who suffer from deprivation from all things this season. Without his enlightened sermon that God would want us to enjoy His gifts to us I would have been bound to want a muted Thanksgiving celebration.

But our celebration at the Salgado residence was very simple. Made up of families and friends whom we consider as family, we brought to the table what we have and could afford. Each one cooked something to make up for a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner.

This year, as they have customarily done in the past, the Salgados hosted the dinner. This year is extra special because they celebrated as a complete family with the presence of their daughter and son-in-law from California.

And then there are the stragglers like me and others. I have families here so I had an extended dinner today at my sister’s and finally my turkey dinner at my uncle’s.

Thanksgiving is all about the joys and blessings of togetherness with our friends and families. Their presence in our lives are the greatest gifts we could have because they all share our joys and sorrows throughout the year. It is not the things that we could buy that are most important, most of our blessings are not material and could not be bought. And am glad of that because it fills my heart with gratitude not just on Thanksgiving but everyday.