We have much to be thankful for in the outdoors

I can never downplay the importance of Thanksgiving.

The beauty of Thanksgiving is that it is a holiday that is not centered around gifts. I’d even venture to say that the Thanksgiving holiday is less reliant on the use of decorations than other holidays. Thanksgiving is based upon feelings and sentiment.

Sure, a phenomenally prepared meal and a lengthy session of overeating mark Thanksgiving, but isn’t it really all about us stopping and taking the time to acknowledge all the things in life that we are thankful for?

Sure it is.

Please indulge me the opportunity to offer a couple of the things I am most thankful for. As you know, I suffered a stroke in June. I was close to becoming totally disabled. If I didn’t believe in a higher power before that, I am sure I would have made peace with him shortly after. It was a miracle.

I am so thankful and appreciative for my wife, Joyce, and my wonderful children for tending to me during my hospitalization and rehabilitation. They did a marvelous job and kept me on the straight and narrow making me do my rehab. It’s why I am doing so well today.

I cannot thank the health care professionals from Northwestern Medicine who cared for me at the amazing Central DuPage Hospital and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital. You know, we all need to be thankful for how advanced modern medicine has grown in our lifetimes. A generation ago, I would have been stuck in a wheelchair, shoved in a corner, and barely able to communicate. Now, I am close to whole again and that is nothing short of miraculous. I cannot express enough thanks for this.

I live in a Western suburb of Chicago and I am always thankful for the incredible recreational opportunities we have here in the area.

First of all, I am in awe of how reasonable it is to buy licenses and tags here in Illinois. As sportsmen, we have it in our DNA to complain about everything, but don’t you really find it amazing how little a fishing license costs, for example?

I am thankful for nature in general. It totally blows my mind to think about all of the encounters I have with nature on a daily basis.

I don’t live in the country. I live in a townhouse. I have been sitting in front of my patio window watching rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks scavenging and storing food for the upcoming winter today. Raccoons and skunks are plentiful. There are plenty of skunks around, too. I am thankful for them as long as they aren’t spraying my little pup.

I had a coyote lurking outside of my window, in wait for an unsuspecting rodent to munch on this morning. This wasn’t in the cover of darkness, it was in midmorning. I am thankful for the width and breadth of the range of wildlife here in the suburbs.

I just watched a hawk make a pass at a baby rabbit. I usually see an owl on a fence post once a week. There are turkeys in a forest preserve off Butterfield Road. I’ll bet I can find a whitetail in a nearby forest preserve just down the road without having to try too hard. I only need drive 2 miles to find a spot on a nearby river that American Bald Eagles call home. If you love the outdoors and nature, you have to be grateful for what we have in that regard.

I like to think of Thanksgiving as the “hunter’s holiday.” There are so many seasons in progress this time of year it is hard not to be able to harvest and enjoy some wonderful game or birds, not to mention fish, as part of your Thanksgiving dinner.

I encourage you all to use Thanksgiving as the time to offer thanks for everything we are able to enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.