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11/22/2007
Thanksgiving
A friend sent me this, enjoy,
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Dear friends,
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In some ways, I like Thanksgiving because there is no emphasis on presents, no mad rush for shopping, no hustle and bustle of lists and chores and decorating and trying to cram in too much in a week or so (let alone feeling "festive" about it all). And, okay, the food aspect ain't so bad either! But the pace of Thanksgiving is one I wish we had throughout the year more often--slow and easy, hanging with folks we like (hopefully), not feeling too guilty about eating, enjoying the crisp fall air before winter sets in.
Let's face it--sometimes life stinks. It's hard. It gets harder as we age. It doesn't turn out the way we think. You can't even remember what it is you wanted to do, let alone accepting a lot of it isn't going to happen. Our time for "us" is short--we're too busy focusing on work, or children, or things that "have" to be done. Age starts creeping in and you find your conversations are often about friends with recent illnesses or infirmities or bad news. It's so easy to have all of this absorb our thoughts, our time, our energy.
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So Thanksgiving is a good day to take the time to think about the good stuff as well. For me, that means thinking about all of you. The friend who drove me to the airport on a wintry Christmas morning when I was in crisis; the friends who take in my mail and water my plants while I'm away; the friends who always call on birthdays and holidays or before or after trips to see how I'm doing; the friends who come to my crazy game nights and put up with all my "rules"; the friends who invite me on a spur of the moment picnic or over for dinner; the friends who call for no reason except to catch up; the friends who have seen me on and off-stage and actually think I have something to contribute; the friends who let me come out and play ball all summer and even begrudge me a compliment or two when I bat well; the friends who take hikes with me in the woods when I want to decompress; the friends who invite me to visit for vacation; the friends (that would be ALL of you) who listen while I talk and talk and talk and talk and...okay...you get the point.
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So here's to all of you at this Thanksgiving...for giving of yourself, for letting me be me in my own flawed way, for doing things with me and being there for me and keeping me afloat when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. You have helped make my life more interesting and rewarding and rich. All my love!
Beth
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PS Here's something to consider for your Thanksgiving day crowd http://www.savedarfur.org/page/s/thanksgiving.
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And, as usual, a couple of my favorite quotes:
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Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
We have all been wrongly manipulated, misguided to believe we are longing for security, when really it is kindness we are after. There would be no reason to build fences or walls or lock our doors, no reason to drop scud missiles, no reason to hold machine guns to the heads of drowning terrorized people, no reason to leave folks waving desperately from rooftops, no reason to raise the rent on houses that don’t exist, no reason do any of this if we had all been raised believing the end goal was kindness. We are taught instead it is about money, power, privilege, security. How harsh this hunt for security makes us, how cruel. It teaches us to take care of ourselves, our own. Not to go too far out, not to go outside a certain circle. ~Eve Ensler, Insecure at Last
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