It’s easy to take what we have for granted until one reads that there are children on Vashon who have so little that a coat and pair of gloves top their Christmas list.

Or that American soldiers in Afghanistan desperately need blankets.

Or that a beloved Island artist was on the edge of an emotional precipice until she began an artistic process that helped her discover a light deep within her soul.

This week’s Beachcomber — from the front page to the special holiday gift guide — carries such stories, stories of both hardship and hope. Some readers may find them especially meaningful this week, when many of us will gather around a table in a spirit of gratitude.

And indeed, we have much to be thankful for on Vashon. Most of us have coats and gloves; few of us find ourselves or our relatives in harm’s way in a foreign country; many of us, like Irene Otis, know — in our hearts — that everything will be all right.

What else do we, as an Island, have to feel grateful for? Here are a few things that come to mind for us at The Beachcomber.

Natural beauty abounds on this Island. Consider the loons in Tramp Harbor, the nuthatches at our feeders, the winter wrens in the woods.

There’s little crime and few traffic jams.

Our kids, for the most part, are safe, and the schools they attend are among the best in the region.

We have an Island that offers us so much: Locally grown food, available even now, as the days grow shorter. Music, drama and art, virtually around every corner. Good grocery stores, nice restaurants and great specialty stores — almost everything we need within the few blocks that make up our town or just down the road, in Center or Burton.

We have fantastic organizations striving to make our Island a better place — from Vashon HouseHold to the Vashon land trust to the Vashon Senior Center.

And we have other fantastic organizations working to make the world a better place. Consider our homegrown Backbone Campaign, working on health care reform, or the small but effective Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, striving to protect endangered species in Indonesia.

Economically, it’s been a tough year for many, and that, too, is evident when one looks around our Island. The lines continue to be long at the food bank. Businesses have closed. Some, like our wonderful little Vashon Theatre, are hanging on by a thread.

But the elves are out, gathering food and money for the food bank. Islanders are rallying to save our theater. And we, as an Island, continue to show one another — in ways both big and small — that we care.

Here at The Beachcomber, we say thank you: To our readers, our advertisers and the many Islanders who do so much to keep Vashon vibrant and strong.