Over the last few days, the constant refrain before thanksgiving has been: “Where are you going?” or “Who is going to cook? or worse “Are you having turkey”. While growing up on the Great Plains, this holiday meant three things Dinner at some family member’s home(the best), more food than we should have had, and an upset stomach because you just had to try everything.
We as a nation, a people of faith and perhaps a world have lost what Thanksgiving Day was intended to be. It started as an act of faith, introspection, and hope, for surviving, in our case, the first years in the new land. Thanksgiving was intended to be a time for each of us to reflect on the year as we prepare for the new one coming. It has also become tied to certain foods and behaviors. Turkey, which becomes a joke at the hands of the government, is not loved by all of us. Cranberries were essential along with sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. There is always pumpkin pie, apple pie, and the last dessert from Ladies Home Journal filled the pantry with enough to have dessert four times and still have leftovers.
Some times we went around the tables naming the things we were thankful for this time, and mostly it was things. In recent years we prepared for Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Giving Tuesday, with some not even spending time with anyone who we loved or cared about or for. Today has become the entrance to the commercial shopping season. Stuffing us with things…
As a life coach, I see the need for change in so many times and places, so this year…
I spent today reading and writing and will later send greetings to family and disparate friends. I started making the feast but somehow found myself thinking about the past year, those family and friends who have passed from this life, new friends and all of the gifts of being, from cherries in the summer and persimmons in the fall. I give thanks for Holy Trinity in Brooklyn, Gloria Dei in New Hyde Park, Christ in Floral Park, Trinity in Astoria, and being assigned to Trinity in Middle Village, as they have shaped, strengthened blessed me in life. I write to be able to give of myself and reflect on all that I have to be thankful for today and every day. Dinner will be leftovers and later I will donate to those places and organizations that are giving so that we might be able to do so.
As I end this post I give thanks and offer this prayer: Blessed are you Oh Lord our God maker of the Universe for giving us each day. Amen
