Jim Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Latimer County and parts of LeFlore and Pittsburg counties.
It’s the time of year where we pause to be thankful. If we’re not careful, we could miss it. Thanksgiving is tucked between the very commercial Halloween and the sensational season of Christmas and New Years. But I like Thanksgiving and the opportunity it gives me to think about all I’m truly thankful for.
On Thanksgiving, most of us will eat heaping plates of food, spend time with family and friends, watch some football and just overall enjoy the free country in which we live. I’m thankful for each of these.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday. It celebrates the alliance in 1621 between the Native American Wampanoag people who shared a harvest feast with the Pilgrims who had settled in Plymouth, Mass. In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Day of Thanksgiving to be held each November. I’m thankful for all of this as well – for the goodwill that existed at that time between the Native Americans and the English colonists, for the remembrance even during a time of war that there was much for which to be thankful.
I pray that we will always keep Thanksgiving in our hearts. Sure, there are times when we don’t agree on everything, but pausing to give thanks for the blessings we have brings us closer together with those with whom we may have a difference.
If we can stop to say thank you to our Creator for the lives He’s given us, for the beautiful world He created, for the free nation we are privileged to live in, for our family members and the friends we hold dear, for our health, our homes and our provision, for those who serve us in many ways – from our first responders, to our police and firefighters, to our military men and women and our veterans, our teachers, our health care workers, and so many more – I think that we will find we are too busy being thankful to be upset about anything else.
There will always be more we can accomplish and more ways we will find to serve others, but for this moment, let me say to all in House District 17 Happy Thanksgiving! Please enjoy this moment of peace.
As always, thank You for allowing me to serve you. I can be reached at (405) 557-7381 or by email at jim.grego@okhouse.gov.
Jim Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Latimer County and part and Pittsburg County.
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