THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS

I am remembering a Thanksgiving morning 31 years ago. My then-husband and I had just moved into a new-to-us house.  We had yet to tear up the orange shag carpet in the living room or replace the orange countertops in the kitchen.  Ditto the bordello-red paint on the downstairs-bathroom walls. The yellow plaid wallpaper in the kitchen remained in place, as did the yellow walls with orange trim in one bedroom and the chartreuse walls with royal blue trim in another. We will not speak of the olive drab walls and trim in the master bedroom. To say that the house needed "refreshing" would be an understatement.

 

We had been in the house for only two or three weeks.  We would, nonetheless, host Thanksgiving dinner, shag rug be damned.  In those days, when our daughters were young and we had little nearby family, we would often have twenty-plus people for dinner.  Orphans, mostly, by which I mean friends whose families, like ours, lived far away.  

 

In the years since that long-ago Thanksgiving, my then-husband and I divorced, and my daughters grew up and moved out, The house is now 64-years-old and I am older still. There will, however, be no shortage of guests for dinner tomorrow.  My husband of twenty years and I will host my daughters and two of his sons, along with their spouses.  There will be six grandchildren, and, oh yes, two ex-spouses, his and mine.  They are, after all, the people with whom we raised our children. They are family and belong at the Thanksgiving table.  

 

The shag carpet is long since gone, as are the other decorating horrors. My daughters will prepare the feast, with contributions from other family members.  The four grandchildren aged three and under will provide joyful chaos, while the two older grandchildren will bring a welcome touch of sanity.  

 

I don't know about you, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I don’t view the holiday as a re-creation of the first uneasy coming together of settlers and natives. For me, it is simply a celebration of gratitude, a time to gather with family and/or friends to share a meal and appreciate one another. 

 

And I love that there are no gifts involved.

 

Look, it has been a tough year politically, but I'm not going to let that stop me from finding things to be grateful for.  Here is a partial list of my current gratitudes:

 

Family

Friends

Community

A warm house and hot, running water

A functioning body and brain

Books

My garden and my writing projects

Hope, however guarded

 

(Would it be frivolous to add chocolate?)

 

I hope you all have much to be grateful for.  And I hope we can find ways in the coming year to assist those who are lacking some or all of what I have listed above.

 

Namaste and Thanksgiving blessings.

 

                                                   Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash