Snow is falling again.  In the pre-dawn darkness, I hear a neighbor plowing my driveway unasked.  We do not know one another well, but I do know that he lives with Parkinson's disease.  He loves to help others with the little tractor-plow he bought a couple of years back. I am grateful for his generosity this day before Thanksgiving.

The fire casts a flickering glow on her small, furry body purring on the rug.  I am grateful for the affectionate company of the cat who joined our family last winter.

The "Peaceful Holidays" station plays on Pandora Radio, and I give thanks for the magic of electronic media.  I appreciate the social networks that maintain connections between holiday letters.  I appreciate the easy access to inspiration and entertainment.  I am grateful to stay in touch while traveling, check the weather forecast, get maps and directions, follow flights. And more.

A feast appears on tomorrow's calendar. I give thanks for abundance and generosity.  For decades, our friends have opened their doors to others without family nearby.  Food, football and fun abound as this extended family forms and re-forms from year to year.

The letter from last year's holiday mail awaits re-reading. Last year during Thanksgiving week, dear friends embarked with hope on a multi-party kidney transplant.  Today I mist up as I give thanks for the time we had and the love we shared after our children married one another. I am grateful for his life and her resilience as she has dealt for the past year with the reality of life on her own.

The thanks-giving list is long.  Some experiences rise easily to the surface when the call for gratitude is issued.  Others take some digging.  In the depths of my soul, I believe that it is all a gift and that thanks are always appropriate.  Sunny days and gloomy ones.  Healthy days and painful ones.  Having and losing.  Clarity and confusion.  Living, dying, and rising from the dead.

What are the easy thanks in your gratitude journal?  Which ones appear only when you go deeper?