You know you got it...

 Shout if it makes you feel good! (oh yes indeed...) 

Yes, the breakfast brunch is kicking in (the power of feast days!), but more than that, a real feeling of gratitude for God, after a long almost two years...*

Our churches have reopened for in-person fellowship (and despite the peaking numbers of covid cases here, people are risking it, and turning out); our pantry shelves are at wintertime full; and we're acknowledging a social interdependency that will always be with us in America, while strongly reaffirming as a nation our preferences for basic individual freedoms as outlined in our country's Constitutional social compact.

You see, just like we water down Christmas to make it more accessible to all via trees and candles and the spirit of generosity embodied in... Santa Claus, so too do we make today about turkeys and shared tables and sometimes, showing off what we've got (counting chickens even before they're hatched, so to speak), truth be told... under the guise of gratitude. Public gratitude. Very loudly proclaimed.

 But God's great gifts are there for us to acknowledge every day, the humility and grace in knowing our time here is limited, the days long or short (-- we know not the time or season, blessed but mortal though we are...) and all glory --- all these gifts!, flow through Him...

Not to get too deep, but the food, the meal, the gatherings are but a facade for what happens in our homes everyday -- independent people seeking self sufficiency, supporting society's lessers who cannot always self support but ultimately seeking freedom, independence, the ability to grow for oneself -- not asking others to pay their share for your individual family's needs...

America is not a socialist country, by God, but we will always give to those in need.  We pursue our freedoms best not by taking from others, but on growing the gifts God has given us.

* I'm working on my memoir essay of that time -- would drop the title, but too many filchers here always commodifying off their betters; flattering, but eventually there is rent to be paid, and like your stocks, it's "going up, going up, going up ... (!)"

Don't kill the goose: she's always good for the gander... ("Oh, sailor!")