Thanksgiving is coming up this week, and while I don’t typically need a special day to remind me to be thankful, I do my best to get into the spirit of the day and be particularly mindful of things for which I’m grateful.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to realize it isn’t things I’m grateful for at all.

It’s moments, and it’s people in my life. And it’s important that I express my gratitude to those people, so they know how appreciated they are.

Take a minute, if you would, and let me tell you about a few of them now, and maybe if they read this, they will know.

Of course, I’m grateful for my husband and best friend. Not only because he is the love of my life and truly the best pal I’ve ever had, but because of the things he’s taught me. Long before we were a couple, we worked together, and I was there when he became the youngest police chief the town had ever had. He was smart as a whip, with loads of good ideas, but he wasn’t used to working with town leaders in other departments, or with politicians. As a chief, that was part of his job. He also had a union on the other side that he had to learn to work with on the administrative side. As he learned how to negotiate, I watched and learned. From him, I learned one of the most valuable life lessons: when you are in dispute with someone, you both want to be right, because each of you is fighting for something you believe in with all your heart. For one person to win, another person has to lose, and to feel as though the thing they care so much about is not important, not worthwhile. Winning the argument is not therefore truly the goal. The goal is to find a compromise so that each of you comes away feeling heard, feeling respected and feeling valued. Not to say there aren’t those rare moments where a leader simply has to say no, but if that really is a rarity, then those moments don’t sting so much, because you know that you are always heard, always given fair consideration regardless. He also taught me that being the boss means making sure that those who do the work get the recognition. Bosses take on the problems, employees get the spotlight. I cherish both of those lessons and it has made me better at every job I have had since.

I’m grateful for our children, all six of them, (some were his, some mine, but all are ours). Over the years, they have taught me patience and priorities. They have brought me to both tears of sorrow and frustration and tears of joy and happiness. They have given me reason to experience pride, and love like I never thought possible.

I’m grateful for the family I have had, who taught me resilience, respect, courtesy, strength and my own self worth. My family helped me believe in my own abilities, and taught me perseverance in the things I am still learning. They instilled in me a responsibility for my community and those around me, and that when I succeed at something, it is always my job to turn around and give a hand to those behind me.

I’m grateful for the fantastic team with whom I work. Chandler Inions, my editor, started as a reporter working for me when I was the editor, and the swap could have been hard for some. But not for us. I like to think I managed to teach him a few things, but I know he has taught me along the way as well, and I have been honored to get to be here to watch him grow into the role. I am beyond grateful for his passion for journalism, something we share, and that he still gives me the space to do what I love more than anything — tell people’s stories. Happily he also catches most of the mistakes I make, because I certainly still make them. I appreciate his easy laughter, and that he treats our team like family. He doesn’t have to do things the way I did, he just has to do them well, and I can say with confidence that he does.

I’m thankful for Robert Sullivan and Karen Kistler, the two reporters I work with. Both are intelligent, funny, curious, and it is my good fortune to call them not just coworkers, but friends. They, too, love this field the way I do, and it is beyond incredible to have a newsroom full of people who think about this job the way I do. Plus, Robert is a local guy and I offer thanks every single day for his knowledge of all that is Rowan County. And Karen is my desk partner and my laughter buddy, which is an absolute necessity to survive in our world.

We are all thankful for Mike London, who is the icon of our newsroom. Mike is considered a permanent fixture at the Post, and the day that changes, I swear the earth will stand still for a moment. Mike knows things I wouldn’t know I needed to know, until I needed to know, and there he is with the information. Everywhere I go, inevitably someone asks about Mike and how he’s getting along, all the way up to state senators. I am so grateful for his encyclopedic knowledge of our community and his commitment to our paper. Please don’t ever leave us, Mike.

I’m grateful for Andy Mooney, our graphic artist, layout guru and unofficial tech guide. Andy lays out our publications, both online and in print, daily, with a sharp eye for detail and for errors. He is our go-to with computer questions (why can I not get this page to come up? Why has my story disappeared?) and on design elements. He is also another fellow with enough history under his belt that he can help fill in the gaps of knowledge in the community. And if he ever decides to take a vacation, heaven help us. He is one of those cogs around which our production wheel turns. He has also become a cherished friend whose gracious and caring outlook on life has revived me many a time when the day gets a bit heavy to carry.

Things are changing a bit for our publisher, John Carr, as the company is adding to his responsibilities, but I’ve been and will continue to be grateful for his leadership, his guidance and his support of our whole team and the work that we do. I cannot leave out the rest of the team in the office: Susan, Mark, Amy, Brendan, Randy, Dennis, LeeAnn, Mike, Janice and Winfred. If I wrote out what each of these amazing people bring to our table I would be out of room, but I am thankful for each one of them every single day. Every member of our team contributes to the whole of what we are trying to do, and every one of them is someone special to me, both in and out of work.

I don’t know that I have ever had the pleasure before of working somewhere that I like, from the heart, every single person in the office. I do now, and I’m grateful for it.

I’m extraordinarily grateful to all of the first responders that I see and write about every day, not just because they share information with me, but because of what they do for all of us, day in and day out.

There are so many others that I’m thankful for, and the reasons vary wildly. But like listing those I work with, if I tried to list them all, it would take reams of paper. But I do need to say this before I close it out.

I am grateful for you. For those of you that take the time each week to read, to share in a small snippet of my life and my thoughts, and indeed for those of you who tell me so. I’m thankful to each and every one of you who has trusted me to tell your story at some point. I appreciate the connection we have through this newspaper, and through the Rowan community. On Thursday, as we say grace before we eat, I will be thinking of all of you, hoping you are having  a peaceful, joyful day with those you love, and hoping that for a moment, you can feel the gratitude I’m sending your way.

Elisabeth Strillacci covers crime, courts, Spencer, East Spencer and Kannapolis for the Salisbury Post.