It has been getting cold these days on my Walk Across America. We started in New York City on Sept. 1 in the heat and humidity and I’m now loving this crisp, chill air as I walk through the North Carolina countryside. At night, the Carolina sky is so clear that you can see the stars, which I rarely see in my Chicago South Side neighborhood. Most of all, I’m loving this time of the year because it means Thanksgiving. 

Walking down the Drewry-Virginia Line Road, I came upon the oldest family-run store in North Carolina, Buchanan’s Store. It’s been open since 1878 and one can only wonder about the kind of people that have come through its doors, from Confederate veterans to little old me. 

There were beautiful flowers out front and Thanksgiving decorations everywhere. Most of all, people there were sweet to us. I sat on its front steps with my drink, taking a break from my walk, and it hit me hard about how much I have to be thankful for this year. 

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Back home in Chicago, I have seen the miracle of the community center — something I have dreamt of for over 10 years — starting to be built. Seeing those tractors dig out the dirt, seeing those beams go in, the cement poured, it has been so long since there has been construction for positive change in that area and I admit I cried several times. I am thankful to all the donors and supporters who kept believing and made this possible. I am thankful to everyone who has been working to build this center through heat and cold. 

Pastor Corey Brooks at Project H.O.O.D. on Chicago’s South Side. I am thankful to everyone who has been working to build this center through heat and cold. (Project H.O.O.D.)

To every American who has met me on this walk on the urban streets, back roads, country roads, front porches and church steps, I say it from the bottom of my heart: thank you. Thank you for the honey buns, the sandwiches, the home-cooked meals and for kind donations that everyday Americans slipped us. You have fed me, housed me, prayed with me and lifted my spirits when I was down. Because of you, our children will know a better life.

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Thank you to this beautiful nation of ours. She is so complicated at times, and she is far from perfect, but she is never finished, and she allows us to write our futures. I am thankful for this nation that allows even a flawed man like myself to find a way to serve his community. I love this nation that says, “Because things are the way they are, that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way.” She makes the power of change possible within us and I hope to never betray that gift. 

Above all, I thank God for guiding me in this life. He knew the roads before I took the first step. He has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had on this journey. 

As I watch the trucks go by on this country road, I am full of thanks for the sacred grounds I have walked these past days — churches, historical sites, old slave trails, battlefields. Every mile has taught me the same Thanksgiving truth: those who came before us and those who built the paths we walk today, it is those women and men that must be thanked. It is our turn on this Earth, and we must build upon what they built so that there may be a bright future.

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A part of me is always sad at this time of the year. I have held far too many funerals at my church for the young boys and girls cut down by violence before they even had a chance at life. Thanksgiving is often the hardest holiday for their families because it is then that they realize their loved ones won’t be at the table. I pray for those departed souls and I give thanks to them for the life they brought to us in their short time on earth. I thank them for teaching us to cherish life. 

Above all, I thank God for guiding me in this life. He knew the roads before I took the first step. He has come up in nearly every conversation I’ve had on this journey. Not one detail has escaped His notice. 

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My gratitude is deep for Him guiding me in this life because if He can guide a man like me this far, He can guide any of us home.

The journey continues. The promise endures. The hope remains strong. And my thanks to all of you comes from my heart.

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