Episode 104: Thankful

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the balanced wealth podcast. My name is Gavin DiStasi and on today’s episode, I’m going to continue our TDWM tradition this time of year, and talk about being thankful. Obviously with thanksgiving this week officially kicking off the holiday season, the reason we do this is clear, and in light of everything that’s going on in the world, this year, as with so many of the most recent years, it continues to strike me as especially important to take a moment to reflect on the good things we have, the good people around us, so that we never forget just how lucky and privileged we are to live the lives we live.

For me, the natural place to start is always with family, and once again, I’m incredibly grateful that we will hopefully be together again this thanksgiving. That is, of course, minus one. As many of you know, my father passed away earlier this year, so we will certainly be missing him. He loved the holidays and even more, he loved the energy of everything that goes along with the holidays, the good and the bad. It will be bittersweet, and we will definitely be taking time to reflect on some of the most memorable moments we had with him.

But as a father of two kids of my own, both of whom are away at college, I don’t take for granted the time the four of us get to spend altogether as a family these days. The empty nester thing sneaks up on you quickly, and as much as Tracy and I have tried to embrace the freedom it affords us to re-think our lives in some ways – to travel off-season, and re-shape what our free-time looks like, there’s nothing like getting the band back together and feeling that wholeness that is certainly missing when the kids are gone.

Now as I think back to some of our previous versions of this podcast, I feel like every year I say something along the lines of, “with everything going on in the world right now” and I honestly wonder if that ever won’t be the case. The truth is that while things certainly do seem upside down in so many ways these days, I suspect there is always going to be something we can point to, to feel this way. However, the fact is that things definitely do feel, at least, let’s say – polarized to an extreme degree these days, and it is my sincere hope that we may, in some way, find some common ground on which to re-engage in respectful discourse about the most important issues that we all face. In the immortal words of the great Maya Angelou, We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

And despite all of the bad news we seem to be confronted with at all times, I have also witnessed in the past year, some of the most selfless, kind and extraordinary acts of charity and hard work towards building a better world for all of us, and I am incredibly grateful for that. There are many many incredible people out there putting their time, money and effort, where their mouths are, and while I’ll refrain from going into much more detail than that, if you’re listening, you know who you are, so thank you!

While I could go on, I prefer to keep this relatively short, but before I go, I want to once again express my gratitude for all of you – our clients, friends, colleagues, and families, who continue to support and inspire us through all that life throws our way. Without you there would be no us, and we remain humbled and inspired every day by the extraordinary community we have around us and from which we are able to draw so much strength and motivation.

So with that, from all of us here at TDWM, we hope you all have a chance to be together with your families this thanksgiving, and we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a prosperous new year.