Thanksgiving is but a few short days away. This is the week we all pause to reflect and be grateful.

And today, I am grateful for nothing.

In the midst of the busy holiday season, we have reached the brief period of nothing. The pumpkin-spice calm before the peppermint-scented, red velvet-lined, jingle-bell storm.

And I am so very grateful for this moment to catch my breath before the business of busy-ness begins yet again.

The sugar-fueled hustle of Halloween is over, and the race has not yet begun to cross names off my Christmas list, get to holiday parties and fit in a visit with Santa.

It’s almost Thanksgiving … but not quite.

Don’t get me wrong. I love all the excitement — the Christmas decorations, the endless ways to spend each weekend. I wouldn’t have our December any other way. But I also appreciate this quiet between the times of bustle.

It is a time to take stock of all we appreciate in life but sometimes take for granted. Of course I am thankful for my family and friends, the health and well-being of my loved ones and myself, the roof over my head each night. I truly am grateful for all of it.

So just as the elementary school kids did this week, I will use this time to write my gratitude list:

>> I am thankful the spooky Halloween display with the bloody dismembered body that I drove past every day for weeks has been tucked away for another year.

>> I am thankful I have all the ingredients for our pumpkin pie and won’t have to scour four grocery stores in a panic on Thursday morning looking for ground ginger again (I hope). I am thankful that all my family has entrusted me with this week is the pie.

>> I am thankful I preordered our turkey from Zippy’s before they sold out.

>> I am thankful I will enjoy both a Thanksgiving feast at lunch and a second bountiful table at dinner with two branches of our family tree.

>> And most of all, I am thankful for the always open arms that greet my family at the grandparents’ houses — when the baseball game gets rained out or when the kids come in the door after school hoping for snacks that they always receive. I wouldn’t be able to maintain my calm with everyone’s busy schedule without the grandparents.

For most people the holidays start in October or November, but in my calendar, the holiday season starts in September with six birthdays of close friends and family, followed by three more birthdays in October.

The end of summer marks the beginning of the gift-buying season. The Halloween hustle to get to pumpkin patches, fall festivals and costume parties make October a month of madness — our social calendar is more intimidating than any spooks.

But November is the moment to take a breath. And so this week as I sit in a turkey-induced kanak attack, I will be thankful I can just sit with my family and have nowhere else to go.

“She Speaks” is a column by women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Donica Kaneshiro at dkaneshiro@staradvertiser.com.