Today we are thankful. We’re grateful. We’re pleased to have our families and friends around the dining table and we embrace the hectic pace and noise that results from large gatherings.

It’s a special day, and there is much to be thankful about.

We are living in a time of tremendous technical advancement, of exploding social connection and the hopeful expectation that the economy is starting to turn around. We are also living at a time when a growing number of children are living in poverty, of higher than desirable crime rates and of growing concern about air quality and shifting climate.

Every day is a mix of good and bad. Of happiness and frustration. Of satisfaction and anxiety.

And, sometimes, in the workaday world, where we tire to earn a paycheck and worry about our children, it’s hard to reflect on just how good we — as Americans — have it.

We have an enviable number of freedoms and we enjoy hefty protections of basic civil and human rights. We have broad options as consumers, vast opportunities as students and wide, flowing avenues of imagination as entrepreneurs.

Wouldn’t it be nice if, as Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged, each and every one of us could “cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

He’s not saying everything happens for a reason, only that everything that happens makes us who we are, and that is something to be grateful for.

Had a bad fight with your mother when you were 16? Maybe the sting of those tears sensitizes us to how we parent our own children. So, while there’s no way anyone could muster gratitude while being berated, perhaps there’s some glimmer of good that comes from the bad.

Got fired because you messed up at work? That’s a tough lesson, but one that can produce some pretty focused awareness of responsibility.

Took on more debt than you can comfortably afford? That can make a person more discriminating about spending.

Ever post a comment or sent a tweet you regretted? The social media community can be quick to correct bad manners. And, thanks to them.

Emerson is not the only great thinker to reflect on the need to recognize our circumstances and give thanks.

Spiritualist and author Eckhart Tolle, in his book “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” points out that “acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

That’s a very poetic way of suggesting that a good attitude about our lot in life can produce a favorable future.

In late BC, the Roman orator Marcus Cicero said much the same thing: “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

If being grateful can lead to great things, that seems enough reason to make some effort, however small, to not just be grateful, but to act grateful and express that gratitude.

Not every day of our lives will be wonderful. We will struggle, and feel pain. We’ll celebrate accomplishments with our friends and grieve losses with our families.

But, at varying points along the way, there is good.

It’s been nearly a week since this nation has sadly and exhaustively reflected on the death of President John F. Kennedy, but we offer one more thought of him today.

Kennedy once suggested that, in the course of every day, “we must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

Call it a Thanksgiving resolution.

Even Winnie-the-Pooh’s little friend Piglet — through the writings of A.A. Milne — recognized the importance of giving thanks. Though Piglet knew “he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.”

Piglet might be fictional, but the sentiment is real.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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