Thanksgiving  2020

This holiday rolls around every year, and we all contemplate what it is we want to say we’re thankful for.  Of course, we’re thankful for our family, good health, good friends.  So, this year, I’ll be thankful for my daughters and son-in-law and my granddaughters who are all healthy and safe.  I’ll be thankful for the roof over my head, the food on my table, and my dear friends.  I’ll be thankful for my health, my physicians, and the personnel who provide medical care for me.

This year, we can also be thankful if the horrors of the pandemic have not visited us, while praying for the well-being of those who have known the ravages of the virus, whether known to us or not.  My state’s governor has issued appropriate warnings about congregating and putting ourselves at risk for the pandemic.  Continued use of face coverings.  Physical distancing in public.  Hand washing.

I’ve decided that with this article, I will include several, maybe three, of my photographs.  Nothing is recent.  But, I’ve kept some photographs of images from past years.

Our family has determined to have our Thanksgiving by congregating using ZOOM.  Another thing to be thankful for – computer programs such as ZOOM (I know there are others) that are available just when we are in dire need of them.  For school.  For business meetings.  For member meetings of organizations.  We will “congregate” at home, eat our dinner (from our own kitchens), and share the joys of the day.

When thinking about what we have to be thankful for, we usually think of those things that we have asked for and received; it doesn’t matter who we asked for for what.  If it was received, we are thankful.  What about those things we’ve asked for, but never received.  It is possible to be thankful for not receiving them.  This poem, written for the Tips and Chips newsletter for the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild a couple of years ago, helps to put my thinking on paper.

Wishes

A Haibun

 At Thanksgiving every year, we give thanks for all of those things, people, and events – those wishes – we have received.  As kids, we’re taught to be thankful for what we have.  A bicycle.  A family.  Mom and Dad.  Sisters and Brothers.  We grow up and give thanks for a job.  For the roof over our head.  The food on our table.  Our wishes seem fulfilled.

Dear Lord

Thank you for all of the blessings I’ve received

and for not giving me some of my requests.

Life seems to work out according

to a plan.

How often do we show thankfulness for things not given?  Exploring the idea of giving thanks for those things not given causes one to pause.  “I never thought about that,” people say.

I was personally, really angry when I didn’t earn a doctorate … a Ph.D. in education.  Years later, I realized that if I had a Ph.D. in education, I would have been tied to a school district – using my Ph.D.  Instead, I was free to go places any time during the year and not just in the summer.  Along the way, I met wonderful folks I would never have met, being held fast to a school district schedule.

My physical therapist was headed toward degree in chemistry.  She was a chemistry dropout.  She found physical therapy, graduated with honors, and started her own business,  She is forever thankful she did not succeed at chemistry.  So am I!

A young woman who lived in rural Pennsylvania had been encouraged to plan and build an arena for horses.  Rather, she moved to Colorado, continued her love of horses, and is thankful she was not involved in building the arena, an opportunity she almost could not refuse.  If she had helped build the arena, she would still, unhappily, be in Pennsylvania.

For what are you thankful that you did not receive?

Life seems

tailored according to the getting

and

the not getting.

I pray I can live with that.

New Year’s resolutions are like wishes worn on our sleeves.  We plan and wish for certain things to happen in the next year.  When those New Year’s resolutions don’t come to fruition, we are disappointed  Looking at those wishes at a later date, we may find that we are thankful they never came into being.

New Year’s resolutions seem like a good thing

at the time.

Wisdom that comes a few weeks

or months later,

May show us those resolutions

were not worthy, then or now.

 Be safe and be well.

The Cranky Crone

If you have thoughtful feedback or questions, please let me know with a comment below.