Today is a day of gratitude—the original #ThankfulThursday. It’s a time to pause and celebrate our good fortune to live in this country. It’s often said that Americans live in the top one percent of the world.

Our blessings are abundant. We enjoy accessible health care that ensures healthier, longer lives. We have the freedom of movement and choice, allowing us to pursue employment and establish roots wherever we choose. Education is available to empower us with literacy and knowledge, helping us make better decisions about our paths in life. We are free to worship, enriching our inner selves and enabling us to pursue internal peace.

We have running, safe water, civic sanitation, internet connectivity, and lights at the flick of a switch. Government support exists to help during hard times. Military strength ensures we can sleep peacefully at night. Public roads take us wherever we want to go, and streaming media is accessible from the computer in our pockets. The list is endless, and I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on your own.

In our country, there is room to grow, change, and prosper. No matter how hard life feels right now, living in America gives you a better chance of finding yourself in a better place tomorrow than almost anywhere else in the world.

If you feel gratitude on any other day of the year, today is the day to pause, list, and count your blessings. It’s also a perfect moment to stoke your hope.

Hope reminds us of possibility. It assures us that even in uncertainty, we have the power to act and influence what comes next.

I wish you a full day of Thanksgiving—and a big scoop of hope. 

-Howe Q. Wallace Jr