Thanks giving is a special practice, and the holiday of thanksgiving is a very special time which we set aside for feeling thankful and grateful for all of our blessings as we make our way through life.  While every thanksgiving is unique and precious, thanksgiving 2005 is an especially important holiday for a number of reasons.  As the face of America changes, thanksgiving 2005 is a great time to take stock of where we are as a society and as a nation.  As a country fighting a tragic war abroad, we as Americans owe it to the brave soldiers who are battling out there every day to take a moment on thanksgiving 2005 to think of them and be grateful for our own safety.

Regardless of your political views, it cannot be denied that those of us who are lucky enough to be with our families on thanksgiving 2005 are very lucky indeed.  This is one reason why thanksgiving 2005 is a great holiday on which to volunteer.  Many families make an annual practice of volunteering on thanks giving day, including the family of senator Barak Obama, the beloved united states senator from Illinois.  However, you don't need to have a strong political conscience in order to recognize that one way to express our gratitude to god, to country, or to our communities is to spend thanksgiving 2005 helping those who are less fortunate than us.

Thanksgiving 2005 is an ideal year to start a new tradition of volunteering with your family.  Volunteering can mean anything from raking leaves in a community garden to serving soup at a homeless shelter.  You may find that volunteering on thanksgiving 2005 is so satisfying and easy that you can make time for a more substantial volunteer contribution to society, such as tutoring an underprivileged child once a month, or organizing a canned goods drive at your workplace or school.  If you have a unique talent, such as a flair for web design or a way with words, you can make the most of your abilities by using that talent to support a charity or social action group in your community by building a web page for them, or writing a newsletter.  There are as many unique ways to volunteer as there are people in the world, so you may find that volunteering on Thanksgiving 2005 is just the beginning of your life as a volunteer.

There are a lot of things that make thanksgiving 2005 special.  You can give thanks that your family is safe, you can give thanks that your turkey is delicious, you can give thanks that you're not going grey yet, or even that your teenaged daughter has quit smoking, or any other fortunate event which has befallen you this year.  However, when you take this day to give thanks for everything you have received between thanksgiving 2004 and thanksgiving 2005, consider that it is in your power to make thanksgiving 2005 even more special by taking a few hours to give somebody else something to be thankful for. 

Volunteering on thanksgiving 2005 can make the world that much better for somebody less fortunate than you, so consider taking some time to volunteer on thanksgiving 2005 with or without your family by your side.  You will likely be quite glad that you did, and I can guarantee that somebody else certainly will be giving thanks for you.