Thanksgiving Musings

An early Happy Thanksgiving to my friends and family! Love to you all! I've always especially liked Thanksgiving because it's just about being together...no mountain of packages and presents, no rush to get the last bit of shopping done, no decorating, no cards, no fuss. Just cooking, eating, and then relaxing. Lots of together-time. Lots of sleeping. A chance to catch our breath before the mad dash of the holiday season truly begins. Try to really enjoy this little time-out from our busy lives!

It is the kind of late November day here in east central Illinois for which you cannot help giving thanks. The pale blue sky is covered here and there with wispy, gauzy clouds, the sunlight is almost balmy, and the air is crisp. This day is especially welcome because it was proceeded by a solid week of cold, gray days, sometimes rainy, sometimes just damp. It became harder and harder to wake up each successive morning because the sun seemed to have forgotten to rise at all...just dark, gloomy clouds from horizon to horizon. The sun peeking around my shade this morning was the most welcome sight I've had in some time. Thank you for coming back, sun.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I've been musing on giving thanks and being thankful. The season of Thanksgiving really started for me last week, last Wednesday night in particular. It was cold, rainy, and downright yucky outside. But that didn't keep lots of folks from taking part in the community Thanksgiving service at the Methodist church in the little town where I work as a church choir director. My Presbyterian church choir joined with the Methodist choir and the Catholic choir to hastily prepare some music for the service, and then we stood up, fifty voices strong, to sing. And the church was PACKED, in spite of the gross weather outside. People came to hear the music, to remember their many blessings, to find some insight into how to be more thankful in their daily lives. The Catholic priest gave the sermon, and it focussed on being thankful for our collective abundance and giving out of that abundance to help others. We contributed money for the local food bank during the offering time. All in all, a very successful service. I'm delighted that my church choir could be part of it. I tend to think ecumenically about Christianity; I think most of us have a lot more in common with each other than we even realize.

I think it's neat that the United States observes a national holiday of giving thanks. But I also wonder: for how many people is Thanksgiving just hassle and stress? And for how many is it just over-eating followed by football? I don't think it would hurt any of us to take a few minutes out of our Thanksgiving season to reflect a bit on the many things in our lives for which we are thankful. Sometimes you don't even realize that you're thankful for things until you stop and think about them! What if you didn't have a warm bed to collapse into at night? Cabinets full of food? A stove? A computer? A telephone? A CD player? Books? Indoor plumbing with hot water!? Electricity!? None of these things are a given. A trip to a low income neighborhood, either in this country or any other in the world, will reveal that these luxuries (for they are that) are not universal. Sometimes it is good and healthy to think about all the things that to us are ordinary, and remember that to many people in the world they would be amazing and extravagant! Doing this also grounds you, I've found. If I catch myself whining to no one in particular that my favorite CD is skipping, it's good to have the mental check of "well, at least you OWN your favorite CD, as well as something to play it on!" These little instances of finding the silver lining are good practice for the really hard times in our lives. When everything is going downhill fast on our most difficult days, perhaps all that is still good in our lives, despite our current troubles, can be a source of comfort. There's nothing like hardship to make us truly grateful for the blessings that are still ours.

A couple in my church just returned from two weeks of mission work in Malawi. They were working with natives of that country to install wells in rural villages so that the villagers would have easier access to clean drinking water. Until wells came to their communities, villagers had been drinking milky-colored water out of holes in the ground. Many were sick with water-born diseases. The couple, P and G, described the absolutely staggering gratitude of the villagers each time they installed a well. They talked about the amazed looks on the faces of the people when they first saw the clean, clear water coming out of the brand new pumps. They described how one old woman gave them her sleeping mat as a token of her gratitude. They knew that it was all she had to give, and that she would now have nothing to sleep on but the ground. But they did not dare refuse it; they wanted to receive her gift graciously. P and G, like this ancient, beautiful woman, wanted to receive with sincere appreciation. They were truly thankful for her amazing gift, as she was for theirs.

Today, I am grateful for the sunshine. I'm thankful for my comfy, squishy old couch, and the soup and grilled cheese that warmed me as I enjoyed them for lunch. I so appreciate having this laptop computer on which to bore all of you with my musings, and keep in better touch with my loved ones, most of whom are too far away. I appreciate that I took my shower inside with lovely warm water. I'm so fortunate to own a copy of The Lord of the Rings, which I'm having a terrific time re-reading at the moment. I'm grateful for the generosity of another church choir conductor in town who lent me and my choir music for the Advent season. I'm thankful for the clothes I'm wearing; they fit me, they are clean, and they are comfortable. I'm very blessed to have a roof that kept out all of last week's endless rain. I'm thankful for my husband; he loves me, and he is the best husband in the whole world. I'm really fortunate and happy to have the best family in the whole world too, and the very best friends there are to be found anywhere. Life is truly good.

E and I are driving north to Wisconsin for the Thanksgiving holiday to spend time with dear friends of his family. His parents and sis are also flying in from the east coast. I'm really looking forward to the get-away; I'm thankful to have a job (three of them, actually), but I'm also more than ready to leave work behind for a few days of good food, good fellowship, and good sleep! I wish you all a relaxing, restful, and delicious Thanksgiving! I hope that now and in the months and years to come, your lives are filled with a multitude of things for which you are thankful, big things, little things, in-between things. Now go eat like hobbits, and take time to enjoy every mouthfull! And enjoy every moment with those people with whom you are sharing this hobbit-worthy feast. Eating with loved ones is, to me, one of life's great pleasures. In my heart, you are all at our Thanksgiving table, this year and every year.

Happy Thanksgiving!