Thanks for Simple Things—Like Dirt

by Gale Sears

How lucky am I to be able to blog the day before Thanksgiving? Lucky. I love Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It means I’ve made it past Halloween and I’m on my way to Christmas!

Thanksgiving offers the opportunity to…yes; eat a lot, but more importantly to think about the gratitude stuff in our lives: family, faith, health, security, and dirt. Yes, I’m thankful for dirt.

My love affair with dirt started at a young age. Growing up in Lake Tahoe there was a lot of dirt. My mom took a picture of me when I was three years old, sitting in a mud puddle at the front of our house, and making mud pies. It was heaven.

Our family home was on a dirt road. All the roads in our neighborhood were dirt. The play yard at school—you guessed it—dirt. And when the September rains came down in buckets, man! That dirt smelled amazing!

Dirt, soil, earth, ground—whatever we call it, it’s all good.

In spring we get our hands into the dirt to plant radishes, carrots, beans, squash, tomatoes, corn, and rutabagas’. (I’ve never actually planted rutabagas; I just like the sound of it). We plant and those little seeds snuggle down into the warm soil and transform themselves into a colorful bounty. Ah, the power of dirt.

I even loved dirt in the summer time when my kids would come home from a day of playing, covered in it. When I saw the dust puff around them, like Pig Pen, I felt content that they were getting an authentic childhood, and that dirt was helping them to grow up well adjusted and happy.


Last, but not least, go for a walk in the mountains, or through a meadow, and see what Heavenly Father’s done with dirt! Mind boggling.


So, this Thanksgiving when we go around the table and each person tells the things for which they’re thankful, I think I’ll mention dirt.

Happy Thanksgiving!