Give Thanks

Thanksgiving is here. It's my favorite holiday. I like it because it's a really simple day devoted to a really profound concept – gratitude. Other than the copious amount of food and football games, Thanksgiving has remained pretty much the same for 200 + years. I love it because the day is filled with family, and food and good cheer, but boiled down, it's still just a day set aside to be grateful for our many blessings.

Every year about this time, I am reminded of how thankful I ought to be. I live in freedom. I have a beautiful family. I am warm when it's cold, cool when it's hot, and dry when it's wet. The food that gets thrown out at my house could feed many hungry children, and yet I will gripe as I stand in front of the full refrigerator that “we have nothing to eat.” As my family and I drift off to sleep each night, we never worry about being dragged from our beds by soldiers, rebels, or angry mobs. We sleep until morning and rise to safety and comfort.

The other night, a news story caught my attention. The reporter, with a pained look on her face, told the camera about the growing number of Americans who face “food insecurity.” Food insecurity is when once, perhaps twice, per week an individual might not get one of the three meals in a day. The story profiled tearful mothers who relayed tales of having to tell their children they would have to eat the free breakfast at school because there was no milk or cereal in the home. Please understand; I am not trying to minimize the plight of the poor in America. Poverty is real, and it is not fun. But consider this for a moment. 2 billion (with a B) people on earth live on less than $2 a day. Many of the world's poor spend all day, every day, surviving not living. The U.S. obesity level is at an all time high and growing at an alarming rate, and yet we have people right here who are hungry? We need a reality check, and then we need to get on our knees and thank God for all we have. Nobody is more guilty of this than I.

So next week when you gather in your home, or the home of a relative or friend, remember what you have been given. You may work hard for what you have, and you may have been shrewd with your finances which has propelled you to a high standard of living. You can certainly take pride in your accomplishments, but remember that all of your success was made possible by the safe, stable, enabling environment into which you were blessed to be born. Certainly, my life, my comfort, my expanding waist line would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate in probably 85% of the world. The life I live would not have been possible without effort on my part. But extraordinary effort in most of the countries of the world amounts to nothing more than survival.

What does this all have to do with Real Estate in Artesia? Everything. Home ownership has become another entitlement in America, but it truly isn't a right. It's a gift that we can give ourselves, but it requires effort and discipline. My goal is to help as many people as possible to give themselves that gift. My job is to navigate you through the complicated straits of the process. It's what I do. It's all I do.

Give thanks.

Scott Takacs