What a year in which to have an opportunity to purposefully gather our thoughts and be thankful. We need this day, which like so much else this year is different. We need this reminder to look toward what is good, and that for which we can, still, be grateful.

Some have been blissfully untouched by the wrath of a deadly virus, economic setbacks, political turmoil and so much else that has made this a year to remember (or, for some, to forget). Those fortunate few can, indeed, be thankful.

But for the vast majority of Americans, this Thanksgiving day will bring reminders  — perhaps of a harvest less bountiful than last, perhaps of loved ones who are no longer with us, perhaps of relationships strained by differences of opinion, and almost certainly of the reasons we are less likely to be seeing, hugging and breaking bread with all the people we would like this season. For some this day will bring pain many of us simply cannot imagine.

And yet, we are surrounded too by reminders that there is hope, that we still live in a wonderful country filled with good people who take care of each other. The evidence of that is everywhere we look in our area today.

We have hope that promising vaccines are being developed and will mean this time next year we WILL gather together. We have hope that, no matter our joy or disappointment on Nov. 4, there will be a peaceful transition of power in our nation’s capital, and that the American experiment continues to defy the odds.

We can be thankful we live in a land in which hope really does spring eternal.

Each of us this Thanksgiving can likely find other, much more personal things for which to be thankful. And it is important that we take the time to do so. It is too easy to give in to the gloom. We need the purpose presented by this day to focus on the blessings, instead. It may mean approaching them a little differently, in this most unusual of years, but they are everywhere.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.