Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. When the pilgrims first gathered to give thanks that they made it through their first few months in a wild new world, they weren’t thanking the natives for helping them, they were thanking their god for making the natives to help them. As a harvest festival, it has its roots in pagan celebrations giving thanks to their gods for a good harvest. When we say that we “are thankful for” something in our lives, even as atheists, we’re generally thanking a nebulous “universe” or “luck” that things are the way that they are.

But there is value in acknowledging that we are lucky people, that we are people who have things to be thankful for. Here is my (far from exhaustive) list of things I am thankful for; from the universal “family and love” to the mundane. Please add your own—the meditation of giving thanks has value even for the secular.

I am thankful for my family, even when they piss me off (or I piss them off), we still love each other in our strange, messed up ways.

I am thankful for my husband’s cats on cold nights & mornings, for life-warmed fur weighing down my legs.

I am thankful for Chinese soup spoons that turn eating the most mundane of soups into an exotic experience and are a great substitute for that homey soup-in-a-mug feeling.

I am thankful, in the winter, that my car runs at 190° so that the run off can cool my frozen fingers and thaw the frozen steering wheel.

I am thankful for snow and for skiing.

I am thankful for wind and rain, which always make me smile.

I am thankful for vast, sweeping vistas that remind me how small I am; and for airplanes’ takeoff, that remind me how we have conquered even gravity.

I am thankful for Anti-RSI, which has kept me from further injuring myself as I hunch over my laptop in the library.

I am thankful that I was accepted and am going to law school—that I live in a part of the world where I can (as a human) and I’m allowed (as a woman) to pursue higher education just because I want to.

I am thankful for I Can Has Cheezburger and its ilk for distracting me when I need distraction and reminding me that laughter is good for the soul (and for providing terminal amounts of cute).

I am thankful that my friend loaned me her laptop lock. Now I can escape the the balcony for fresh air without packing my things up. Of course, half the time, I leave the keys lying nearby, which probably isn’t the most secure way of storing my computer.

I am thankful for airtravel. As sucky as it can be, it sure beats horse and buggy (I imagine) and is faster & cheaper than driving.

I am thankful for sunsets and for Venus, which I have finally discovered is not a satellite.

I am thankful for warm drinks in the Winter: hot chocolate, tea, and Glühwein.