Thanksgiving week is here. Our families will gather together to eat our traditional meal, swap stories, argue about whether cornbread or white bread dressing is better and nap on the couch while watching football. I’m in charge of the corn bread (my great grandmother’s recipe) and the corn bread dressing (my grandmother’s recipe). It’s a great time to recharge and to be thankful for family, food on our table, and the many gifts in our lives.
I’m not on call this Thanksgiving, but I have been in the past. I have a fond memory of Thanksgiving when I was the Chief Resident in our county hospital Emergency Room. I bought the traditional dinner, including a large turkey, for my team… and then realized we didn’t have enough microwaves to heat it up properly. I won’t go into the details of how we handled the problem…. but it turned out that the rarely used autoclave in the ER was big enough for a turkey. We were grateful for ingenuity and a hot dinner!
I will be thinking of the physicians, in practice and in training, who will sacrifice time with their families this year to take care of others. To the physicians, nurses, hospital staff, police officers, fire fighters, soldiers, clerks and anyone else who spend this holiday helping others – thank you. We are grateful.
“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” William Arthur Ward