Fielder’s Choice - Barry Burleson


Thursday, November 22, 2007
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Fielder’s Choice
By Barry Burleson

Blessings

I was riding with Pam in her vehicle Friday and the radio station was playing Christmas music.

And not just one song – continuously. I love the station. It turns to Christmas music every year, but this year I think it’s earlier.

It actually made me start singing along.

I was on my way to a ball game in the county Thursday night and saw a home all wrapped up in Christmas lights already.

Even our door at The South Reporter was painted with the words “Season’s Greetings” a week or so ago.

I’m guessing Christmas is not too far away. But I’m looking forward to enjoying Thanksgiving first.

It seems the activities that surround Christmas get sooner and sooner.

I know my youngest child, 5-year-old Erin, has been circling things she wants from Santa in two or three catalogs for weeks. And she basically circles most everything, when it comes to toys and games and such.

She even wanted to watch “The Santa Clause” movie the other night, and of course, we obliged. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

Pam just recently bought a new Christmas tree – after several years with the same one. But at the time of this writing, it’s still in the box. I do expect it to go up this week.

We’ve faxed wish lists to family members.

I don’t think we’ve actually started our shopping yet. You would have to ask Pam about that one. I’m not known for my love of shopping.

We’ve started planning The South Reporter’s annual Christmas party – one of our few times to get away from the office as a group and enjoy fellowship and food.

We’ve also set deadlines and such for our annual Christmas edition, which always features “Letters to Santa” and well wishes from area businesses. This year it will be published in the December 20 edition of The South Reporter.

But this week is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. Let it pass first, then I will focus more on Christmas.

I like Thanksgiving. It’s the holiday when I slow down a bit, stop and realize just how blessed I am.

It’s about plenty of good food. It’s about fun. It’s about football.

It’s about family. It seems it’s one of the few times in the year, because of our hectic lives, that we have the opportunity to visit with those who mean the most to us.

It’s about Pam, Emma, Andy and Erin. And it’s about our extended family that stretches from Clinton, to Rifle, Colo., to Hamilton, Ala., to Clarksville, Tenn., Nashville, Tenn., and San Francisco, Calif.

Unfortunately, we may not get to see them all, but at this time of the year, they’re all closer to our hearts.

Most of all, this important holiday is about showing our gratitude for our blessings.

Here are some quotes that might help us all to stop and think.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy – As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Alexander Pope – Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.
William Shakespeare – O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1863 – It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

From the Burlesons to your family, Happy Thanksgiving.

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