Thanksgiving hits different when you get older.
When you’re a kid, it’s turkey, pumpkin pie, the parade on TV, cousins sprinting around the house, and the promise that Christmas is around the corner.
But when you’re a man—a man with responsibilities, a man with a mission—the day shifts.
It becomes a pause.
A breath.
A moment to look at your life and say,
“What am I truly grateful for? What’s carrying me through?”
My list gets simpler every year.
My kids.
My health.
My people.
My mission.
And the ability to wake up and keep building, brick by brick.
But as I’ve gotten older, one more thing has crept into the picture.
The land beneath my feet.
The place I call home now—the trails I run, the lakes I walk around, the cities and small towns scattered across the Upper Midwest—it all has a history long before I showed up.
A history that’s beautiful.
Complicated.
Woven with both resilience and loss.
And on a day like today, I feel the weight of that.
Thanksgiving didn’t start as a peaceful feast.
There’s a harder truth beneath the holiday—especially for the Native peoples of this region, the Dakota and Ojibwe, whose land became the foundation for the life I get to live now.
I’m not here to preach a lesson or pretend I have perfect insight.
I’m just acknowledging reality.
Real gratitude includes awareness.
Respect.
Humility.
And honesty about the ground we stand on.
So yes—I’m grateful today.
Deeply.
But I’m also aware.
Awake.
Listening.
This isn’t just turkey and football.
It’s a reminder:
Don’t take your blessings for granted.
Don’t forget the stories that came before you.
Don’t ignore the truth just because it’s uncomfortable.
As Builders, we don’t sugarcoat.
We don’t shy away from complexity.
We honor what came before, even when it’s messy.
We build forward with respect and intention.
So wherever you are today…
Slow down.
Look at who’s around you.
Look at the land beneath you.
Look at the life you’re forging.
And be grateful—not blindly, but fully.
-Brickwall