“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going”-– Mary Oliver
November 23, 10:15 am, 35 degrees, gusty south winds, cloudy, slush and sand.
Beth and I squeezed in a walk even though we both said we didn’t have time. Turkeys, tidying, pies, sides– where are the tablecloths? Are they clean? But we walked anyway. We made peace with the childhood version of Thanksgiving which was all about the Pilgrims and now that we can see it– celebrating colonization– and have left that one behind in favor of a day to be grateful.
Nothing wrong with that, Beth said, except why isn’t every day Thanksgiving then?
What am I grateful for? It sounds so cliche but it is completely true. Family. Friends, this place. Good fortune to be able to sit down to a feast on a Thursday afternoon in November.( My daughter did thaw and brine the turkey and it is in the oven.)
Of course Beth and I worried, as we always do about so much. War and famine, crime and crooks. Meanness. It’s too warm.(We should be ice skating by now.) Landslides. Grief. — and yet– and yet again look around!– There is so much to be thankful for. Be sure to see it. To feel it. Like the river says– imagine everything, then keep going– and I would add, keep loving this world and every good thing in it with all your heart.
Now, I need to finish setting the table. The kids will be here in a half hour.
