Pause for perspective

Take a breath, Hamilton County. 
As we transition from an exciting yet hectic fall season of harvest, school activities and life in general, yet before we launch head first into holiday season mode, it is time for one giant pause.
Let’s take a timeout, collectively, to reflect, celebrate and share.
Thanksgiving is about so much more than turkey with all the trimmings. The festive meal itself is always a tasty treat, often steeped in family ritual and traditions, but that’s only one piece of meat off the bone for an annual celebration that lives up to its name, if we let it.
This time of year we are reminded how much we have to be thankful for, but also how important it is to get off the grid and actually celebrate life’s blessings; to give thanks, and to look in the mirror and take stock of what that reflection has going for him or her.
We are blessed, for example, to live in America’s heartland, where some of the best land around and progressive farmers who know how to work it produced yet another bountiful crop, despite high winds in the spring, low moisture throughout the heated summer and challenges at every turn.
We are blessed, and we should appreciate that fact, to live in a growing community with a combination of diverse job opportunities, strong work ethic and solid internet infrastructure which creates a dynamic, robust economy even in the most challenging of times.
We are blessed, especially looking back just a year or two, to be mostly free of masks and COVID concerns which made us pause in frustration, wondering if it was safe to come together at all.
And we are blessed, to be sure, to live in a state and community grounded in faith, a foundation that helps us trust one another and work through our differences.
On this Thanksgiving holiday, the News-Register family sends all of you the best wishes, as well as a heartfelt thank you for letting us be part of the fabric of this community.
Thank you, and God Bless!
-- Kurt Johnson