I hyphenated the word Thanksgiving for a reason. It is the season for both.

I have a stewardship, along with another brother in our church, to visit a number of families each month. The visits usually amount to a lesson of some sort and questions of, “How are things? Is there anything we can do for you?” Three of the families my companion and I visit are more or less, shut-ins and are comfortable, but have health issues. There is a lot we can do for them even if they tell us they don’t need anything. With the holiday of Thanksgiving near, I challenged myself to do something for them in place of the usual pretty thought of, “You have so much to be thankful for. Count your many blessings.” I used a turkey for them to help with their count.

The Admiral for years has gotten us as a family to trace around our spread hands with a dark marker onto a piece of construction paper. Then, by adding two feet, then an eye, a beak and a gobbler’s beard to the thumb tracing, you have a turkey with a fanned tail. You probably have done this in elementary school. Although it is a pain sometimes, it has become a family Thanksgiving tradition with a purpose. The Admiral does very little without some underlying purpose.

“Now,” she says, after we’ve all made our hand-traced turkeys, “write in each finger, something you are thankful for.” The first year we did this, when the Princesses were tiny, we wrote only five things, but as they have grown, so has the tradition, and the things for which we are thankful. It is to the point that we now have to create ways to write ALL the things for which we have reason to be thankful. My favorite is to write then all in tiny print, without a break, up one finger, around and down the other side, on up the next finger until I have traced the margin of the turkey with all the things for which I am thankful. There are too many in my life to limit the exercise to just five fingers. Isn’t that a wonderful problem to have? We have become creative in our expressions of thanks. This year, I took the turkey exercise a step further.

For our shut-ins, we helped them trace their hands, then, doing the same thing the Admiral does, we told them to write things for which they are thankful. Being in less than good health, I thought they might be encouraged by realizing their blessings, and they were. The surprise was that they were so thankful for our silly idea that got them thinking of what they had, and not what they wanted or even needed. That got me to thinking. We had given them something to make them thankful. We had made an exercise of Thanks and Giving.

I learned that even though limited in their mobility and resources, these folks can still give and uplift as we all can and encourage others to be thankful. I challenged them to go to their neighbors or family and repeat the craft, showing all they have much for which to be thankful. Realizing our blessings rekindles hope and what better gift to give?

Every one of you reading this knows someone who is less blessed than you. Why not GIVE them a call, or better yet, GIVE them a visit? What you can GIVE may only be a smile, but everyone, even those bedridden and shut-in can GIVE somebody something.

It is the simple acts of service and sacrifice that make our lives rich. I am thankful for the time that others have taken to say a kind word to me, a word of encouragement, a call wanting to know how I am, and nothing lights up my soul like a sincere, warm smile. The small, simple things are the foundation for our thankfulness. From these grow greater things such as our family and home, and the list begins.

There are many ways to give thanks this Thanks-giving season. Go serve meals at a mission or church function, open your home to someone who does not have family here and include them in yours or take a plate to someone who won’t have the season’s fixin’s without your giving them.

During this holiday season, I am certain we all have much to recount and be thankful for, but wouldn’t it be nice if you had just one more thing to add to your hand-turkey? Sure, it would. You can get it by giving of yourself. It is, after all, the season for Thanks AND Giving.

David Wilson Atwood is a local writer whose human-interest columns offer a unique perspective. He may be contacted at: www.starchasers.us.