As I look at the groceries I still have to put away, I think about the work ahead. Pies, (already you can guess my priorities), turkey, stuffing, yams. I think when I was young the task often seemed insurmountable, I did too much, I was a novice, and I put too much emphasis on the food. Every Thanksgiving when our children were small, Dave bought a new toy or game and brought it home on Wednesday to keep the kids busy and away from the kitchen full of hot or sharp things. It worked.
Thanksgiving evening until Sunday afternoon, we had board games set out to spend time with Helen and Marc. Eventually that gave way to hockey tournaments, heavy-duty homework, and events with friends. We sometimes went caroling Thanksgiving night or the Friday evening after the Day. I remember one Thanksgiving when we surprised my sister Pat and her family. She, her husband Tom, their combined six kids and Tom’s extended family all looked surprised as the kids and I (Dave was at work) stood outside their picture window at about 7:00 PM on a snowy Thanksgiving evening and serenaded them with several carols. After caroling, we would return home for hot chocolate with marshmallows, Chapter 1 of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and snuggles before bedtime.
I am a product of the Saturday Evening Post covers by Norman Rockwell. Dad and I would take the magazine when it arrived, settle down at the table or maybe on the couch and talk about the latest cover and build a story around what Mr. Rockwell had portrayed. Some were so funny and our stories were outrageous! Others were touching. The Four Freedoms series was case in point. Therefore, Thanksgiving in my younger days seemed a painting come to life, never to be achieved in a real-life family! Look at those paintings! Mom is not crying because the gravy has lumps. The children are not squabbling over whatever the current provocation might be. Dad is not so engrossed in football he hasn’t heard the call to dinner (rarely true in Dave’s case as he is usually hovering over the oven door encouraging the turkey to get done!) No one in those paintings has recently died leaving a somber hush to the conversation. Be that as it may, I caused myself much unnecessary stress striving to match those magazine covers! I love them still, but I am more realistic.
So, just what am I thankful for?
Family! Past, present, and future family. I may not be able to jam them into the mold of a painting, but they are my constant delight (even when I am threatening to send them all far away to have some peace!). My past family makes up parts of who I am, my present family gives me continuity, and my future family whether I am around for them or not is my heritage.
I am thankful for the home that shelters Dave and me. I am thankful for the food we have, the clothes we wear, the car that gets us where we need to go, the fireplace that warms and relaxes us, the herb garden that adds zest to our summer foods, the reading material we have (and the freedom to choose what to read). I am thankful that again this year we were able to share some of what we have with others less blessed.
While I look at Nutmeg with a wary eye when she is at her oddest, I am thankful for my dog. She can be the world’s most determined pest or the sweetest sidekick ever. This reminds me I am thankful I have doggie shampoo and the time scheduled to get rid of whatever that was she must have rolled in!
I am thankful for friends who have encouraged, prompted, pushed, and demanded I begin to share my writing. If you are looking at this you better be reading regularly and often and you better be sharing with others! Still I am thankful for you one and all.
I am thankful for memories of Thanksgivings with Mom and Dad and with Dave’s parents. I also give thanks for siblings who both loved and ganged up on me: there was life instruction in both scenarios! I thank God for our children. Each was so different. In spite of the curse of humanity that each child always believes “Mom always liked you best!” I did not have an all round favorite. There were times when what we did caused one or the other to more closely relate to our experiences. Helen is funny, likes and appreciates kids and their antics, but most often had poor timing when I was crabby. Marc was a cuddler, telegraphed his mischief with wiggly eyebrows, and could disrupt my finest angry lectures with humor. I am thankful for the memory of the first time I held Bett and Belle. I am thankful they like to spend time with their old Bacca and Grammy! Like my own children, there are no favorites each is dear in her own way.
I am thankful that all of our health issues over the years have been minor and manageable. Even though I have a left leg that chooses to do its own thing and not walk in the direction the right leg is headed, I am thankful that’s all the worse it is. Dave’s diabetes is managed, Marc’s family is healthy, Helen’s family is healthy and her cancer numbers are good so no sign of recurring cancer anywhere. We are blessed. We take it for granted that we “have it pretty good”.
I am thankful that in spite of the problems our country has, it is still a country where we may attend the church of our choice (or not), Bibles may be read openly and without fear, I may pray for a friend in need or ask for prayer. Freedom of speech still allows me to say what I want to say in the manner in which I choose to say it. Of course, that means I must allow others to speak their thoughts as well. We each have the freedom to think the other is wrong or to agree. My vote still counts and I am allowed to go to my polling place to cast it. Speaking of voting, my vote cast means the person of my choice may not be the elected mayor, governor, representative or president. However, if I neglect my right to cast that vote, I cannot complain about those in authority. Casting my vote and being disappointed at the outcome gives me credibility when I say I am unhappy with the person(s) in charge. That’s a blessing.
Remember a blessing is not always just happiness. Sometimes the blessing requires effort, pain, monotony. A baby is a blessing, sweet, and soft, and tender and then he/she grows into a teen who costs money, eats you out of house and home, and leaves you hungry for conversation to run off with friends. Your parents are blessings. They showered you with love, time, thought, and care. Perhaps they don’t recognize you when you enter their room. Perhaps they live in an apartment in your home and sometimes try to control you and your family. Perhaps the job you wanted is now one endless project after another with more time spent at the computer planning than actual hands on excitement of creating. Family is a blessing, but even in the Bible family squabbles ruined many a peaceful valley. In spite of all, blessings energize us, put us to the test, help us to find our personal best, and bring home to us life could be worse.
How I use what is given me can be a blessing to others as well as to me. Sharing what I have with those who have less is important. Helping another with the skills and gifts and talents I have usually is more of a blessing to me than to the person I set out to help. Sitting with someone incarcerated and helping them to see their behavior and actions caused their current address but meeting my Savior and allowing Him input in future decisions can determine their future home.
I may wake crabby any given morning, but coffee, a good sunrise, and the sound of mourning doves or redwing black birds can turn my mood around. I am thankful we have the coffee and even when the birds have left for the winter there are still sunrises and later in the day sunsets. In short, counting my blessings is good and I could go on and on. Rather than do that, I’d like to ask you to take even ten or thirty minutes to count your blessings.
Abraham Lincoln suggested the first Thanksgiving Day to be set aside. Later Harry S. Truman chose to make it the same day annually. Below is Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation. It is true today as it was when he penned it (and, no, contrary to what Dave would have you believe, I was not there!)
A Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defected, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth. By the President: Abraham Lincoln William H. Seward, Secretary of State
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