Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

We hope all of our readers and their families have a day filled with warmth, joy and a sense of appreciation for all of the gifts our lives and communities offer.

We acknowledge that for many, there is still pain, there are still challenges and fears and worries. We hope that our communities can come together to alleviate some of the pain, fear and worry. We continue, as we editorialized a week ago, to encourage everyone to think about how they can help their less fortunate neighbors meet life’s challenges.

But even in our angst, even in our most painful days, we believe we can still find room for gratitude. We can still be thankful for the opportunities to meet those challenges and to rise above and past that pain and those fears to a better future.

We do not believe that this faith in our potential makes light of these struggles and grief — their weight is real and truly a burden.

We also believe that we have our greatest chances of making the most of our opportunities together, and with each others’ support.

That is what this season is about: From the value of gratitude recognized on Thanksgiving, through the value of joy and compassion embodied in the Christmas story to the value of optimism we believe we can all find on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

We hope all the families in our region are able to find the value in these virtues this Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday season. We believe we can build a better future and better communities, less burdened by such challenges, if more people reflect, acknowledge and act on these virtues.