OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS....NOT!

I looked for some quotes about Thanksgiving - but they all seemed trite to me.  They didn't really express what is in my heart.  The holiday feels a bit strange this year.  I guess that is because we are in a new place.  It makes me think back to other Thanksgiving celebrations I've known.

I can't remember Thanksgiving as a child, for some reason.  I'm sure we had them...but I don't remember the family gathering anywhere.  But, when I was an adult, I remember that my Dad said it was his favorite holiday.  Perhaps it had always been that way - but as an adult, I started to pay attention to my parents as "people"...not just as my parents.  When my Mom got leukemia, Dad would insist on the family all going out to eat...and he paid the bill.  It was a way for him to give to us...but I didn't really see it then.  Honestly, I kind of dreaded the whole thing...getting dressed up to eat in a restaurant seemed like a "forced" holiday.  Now I see it differently, and I wish I had been more grateful at the time.  We went for several years to Graves Mountain Lodge.  Funny - I think about how much I hated walking up the hill in the parking lot in heels!  Of course, now - that I am in a wheelchair, I would love to have that problem again!  After Mom died, we went to the Boar's Head Inn in Charlottesville a few times.  Daddy was sad then - and would always bring up how much Mom would have loved to be there.  As the family dwindled...my grandmother died....my great aunt died...and soon it was just my sister and her family - along with my family - and Dad.  And, even then, I still didn't "get it."

They say that with age comes wisdom....and that is certainly true with me.  Now I see that Dad's greatest gift was not paying the bill for a Thanksgiving feast.  His greatest gift was a sense of family.  My sister and I are so close - and I think those dinners paved the way for the relationship we have now.  It has made me re-evaluate what it means to be grateful.

This year it will be a small "celebration" - just George, Marilyn and me.  But, I am so grateful for love in my life...for this little relaxed gathering in our new home in Pennsylvania.  I am grateful that my son, Ben, and his wife, Heidi, are happy and safe in Oregon, and that they can have dinner with her parents - without experiencing the nightmare of air travel!  I am grateful that my sister is well and that we were able to spend time together last week (she came for a visit - will write about that on another day).  I am grateful that I have weekly phone conversations with my uncle, Weber.  He keeps that little thread of childhood family alive for me.  I am grateful that I am as mobile as I am, considering everything - and my life is full and active.

And, mostly, I am grateful for age - that transition in life that opens our eyes to what is really important, and what is not.  Everyday, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn something new - and to perhaps look at things with new eyes.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday - and that you find that place in your heart where true gratitude resides.