Before adding this post I looked back to see what I had written on other Thanksgiving weekends. I was chagrined to find that in the three years I have had this blog, each year on the last week in November I have written about the Advent book I was currently editing, or the Christmas play in rehearsals.
Oh No! I skipped Thanksgiving! I’m a Holiday Skipper!
In this space at least I have completely ignored the Thanksgiving traditions. I can’t imagine why because I love this holiday. I observe this holiday. I have done no Christmas shopping, my house is decorated with my pilgrim candlesticks and bowls of fall leaves. Today I will cook and clean and tomorrow I will feast with family.
On Facebook several of my friends are participating in “30 Days of Thanksgiving” posting every day this month an expression of their gratitude for something in particular. This sort of reminds me of Sunday school classes where we were called on to tell something we were thankful for. This is harder than it sounds. The first kids would say parents and home and God and Jesus and the ones sitting on the second row were hard pressed to come up with something different. I would be able to do a much better job of that now than I did when I was ten.
I am thankful for God’s grace in my life; my parents who loved us and each other and made a Christian home for us; my five siblings who love and encourage me; my four children and the blessings they are to me; my grandchildren who are easily the most beautiful and bright and talented young adults in the world; my great-grandson expected to join us in January; all the in-laws and step-kids that make up our great extended family; a great cloud of witnesses who taught me in VBS, Sunday School, Methodist Youth Fellowship and prayer groups through the years; friends and church family; opportunities that have come my way; more possessions than I need; my sense of humor because honestly if I couldn’t laugh …
I don’t know if that’s 30. I could go on: I am thankful for my home, our country, my job, the people I work with and the time off to celebrate holidays. I am also thankful for beauty: art, music, literature, the world around us with the wonder and colors of the changing seasons.
I’m thankful for you, nice reader.
Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving Day.
Beautiful! Happy Thanksgiving!
I read this just after I belatedly posted my Thanksgiving “gratitudes” list. Like I said therein, all writers everywhere must have made such a list. I like yours especially because I like you! loveP