It is already the end of November, left just one month away for the
next year of 2009. What a swift time flows away. It is a season of
thanksgiving and also time of making plans for next year. How many
years we have been in this world, how many days are there so far or
how many hours we have spent in our life? As we are a few days ahead
of Thanksgiving Day, it is good to think about what we should
appreciate and to whom we should express our heartfelt gratitude.

Let’s recount many important things which are inseparable from our
lives: parent, family, wife, children, schools, teachers, homeland,
environment, air, sun and you name it, WE DID NOTHING TO GET IT NOR
PAY NONE. Those are completely given to us as gifts or inheritance to
us. Therefore, it is natural or we must have profound reasons to give
thanks to them AT ANY TIME and ALWAYS.

I want to introduce to us all an interesting short letter by a college
girl to her mom. I want you to imagine this girl is your daughter and
you get a letter from her one day. It begins like this.

“How are you mom and dad? I hope you guys are doing ok. It has been
quite a while since my last letter. Recently I broke my ankle and my
left arm when I jumped down to the ground from my room of second floor
in dormitory. It was a close call, the dorm was on fire but most of
kids could get out of the burning sites safely because of the help of
guardian Paul. He was very kind enough to come to my hospital every
day and took really good care of me. After being out of the hospital,
I had nowhere to go so Paul allowed me to share his room. Actually we
fell in love each other and plan to get married as soon as he divorce
his wife. I found myself really love him. So mom and dad don’t worry
about me and I hope to see you soon with Paul, from your daughter Susie”.

What do you say if Susie is your daughter? It is absolutely sure that
we all lose words, surprised too much, get fiercely mad at her and how
can my college kid marry to the old married guardian? Without
hesitation, we all go out and get her out of school, some of us would
beat her.......

There is P.S. at the end of Susie’s letter, saying mom and dad don’t
worry about it. I just make a lie. In fact, I got D in my math and F
in Chemistry. So if I tell you my poor results, you probably get mad
at me. I am sorry for that but I will do better for sure next
semester, so please forgive me, from Susie.

Now we all become suddenly thank God, she has no relation to
Paul...... being generous and forgive our kid. It doesn't matter even
if she has the poor results, as long as she doesn't do the stupid
things........ In fact, it is nothing compared to the horrible make-up
story that Susie just fabricates.

So if we change our view on our life, even the troubled things could
become beautiful and lovable. We should say “thank you” to people we
meet, not to mention on our family, friends, and close associates and
also thank God for what we have, cause everything we enjoy are just
gift, we just temporarily possess and enjoy them. Life is beautiful if
we have eyes full with love and compassion. Life is precious if we
value even those trivial things. Life can be joy if we express
gratitude as much as possible. I owe you guys a lot and I must say
thank you all.