Happy Thanksgiving

The cabin we usually rent  on the beach

My Husband, two sons and I last Thanksgiving

     November brings a reminder that we should be counting us the things that we have in this life instead of thinking about the lack or the future lack of things we don't even need.  I know that there are a lot of political issues around the pilgrim and the "indian" thanksgiving stories which I was taught in grade school.  In fact, I was 10 before I met any of my Native American side of the family, at my great grandmother's funeral, when her Sioux relatives came to visit the branch of the family which had been mainly out of touch since she married a stage driver and left the Sioux people when she was only 17 (and she lived to be 98).  I know the divisiveness between the stories of friendship and neighborly harvest festivities, and the reality of war and genocide.  I had ancestors at Plymouth plantation as part of the Mayflower bunch and I had ancestors who would have been better off if the white people never set foot on this continent.  Yet I would not be here and who I am, proud to be an American, where in spite of the differences and the hatreds, there has been an amazing amount of support and connectiveness.  We are the land of mixed marriage and acceptance just as surely as we are the land of stubborn pride and the opinion that anyone else who is different is wrong because we are the best.

 So I choose to face the future that we will be giving to our children with optimism.  I choose to look at the stack of dirty dishes and give thanks because we have food.  I choose to admit that we have a history full of darkness but also to believe in a future filled with light.

 Most Thanksgivings I have rented a cabin on the beach and cooked a turkey with my family and any friends who chanced along.  This year we can't afford the cabin because our insurance wasn't sufficient to keep us from having some huge medical bills.  Still, we are healthy now, and together, and the turkey will taste just as good around the table we eat at on a daily basis.

 Life is hard many times, but worth celebrating and giving thanks for all the same.  There is a light in the darkness and warm hands to hold when it seems there is nothing else there to fill those hand,

Happy Thanksgiving, and may you find yourself surrounded by love and sheltered from some of the storms that come your way.