BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

There is one person I know who is having a very special Thanksgiving this year, probably more special than all the others.

Her name is Tricia and just last Friday, November 18, she was what the medical community calls “clinically” dead.

This weekend she is home with her children and grandchild gathered around, no doubt looking into their smiling faces giving thanks for the miracle of her rebirth.

Tricia was at her job at a private club in Annapolis, MD last Friday. She had just left her secluded office in the lower level and gone upstairs. Moments later she collapsed. Her heart stopped beating. Someone yelled to call 911 within earshot of a doctor (a neurosurgeon) who rushed to her side and performed CPR.

Within a minute or two the ambulance was there. It was apparently returning from another call and at that exact moment was passing in front of the club with a full team of emergency medical technicians on board. They used a defibrillator to shock her heart back to life. If she had not gone upstairs; if the doctor had not been there; if the ambulance had not been passing by…if miracles did not happen.

Thanksgiving to some is gratitude for a hot meal or having someone to love, or having a job, or having a home in which to celebrate the holiday.

Thanksgiving to others transcends all of that. It is gratitude for life itself in the face of overwhelming odds and unexplained circumstances. It is a reaffirmation of faith.

There are surely many across the country for whom it is that kind of very special day. I know a mother of twins who survived cancer this year. I can only imagine what is in her heart today. I assume it is that kind of day for more than a few soldiers back from Iraq or Afghanistan who are today peering into the eyes of children they weren’t sure they would ever see again.

The experiences of others make us all that much more thankful for who we have in our lives and all that they give to us. How can anyone not be grateful for the enduring love of another human being? Those who know it, know it is more healing than medicine, more gratifying than anything material, and the true epicenter of one’s inner self. That is why we need a day of thanksgiving. Thanks, Mr. Lincoln. It is a day when we are coaxed, almost forced to think more about what have than what we have not. So, I hope you have been able to brush aside the advertisements for 32-inch plasma televisions, or break your concentration on the Lions and Packers, or put down a turkey leg long enough to not only give thanks, but feel it, too; really feel it, be consumed by it and hold it for as long as you can.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.