tender mercies...

...with the holidays in site I want to take a moment to wish all of you the Peace and Joy of celebration.  May it be with your family and friends or with memories of the heart I hope that you are filled with the light of gratitude.  And may you take that light and shine it on others who are in darkness, fear, loneliness, depression, illness and despair  and touch their hearts as you have been touched.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, with gratitude and light, thank you for making my life so much better...for shining that light on me.

simple and sweet...

I am one of those 'count your blessings' type of people.  Through much adversity I have learned to 'try' and see the blessings of each day.  Some days are especially hard, like when a family member dies or you spend weeks on end in the hospital or rehabbing your broken body, but even then there are blessings.  I haven't always been this way and it is my belief that I am because of the trials and travails that I have been through.  I really do have a point here albeit lost in all my blathering.  I have been richly blessed.  I have people who love me, care about me and for me.  I have survived without the burden of bitterness.  I have survived to see the incredible sunset that graces us each day. ( I know the sun also rises but I am usually sleeping, still I am grateful!)   I have survived.

For all of you survivors out there, and that is everyone of you, take a moment today to look towards the heavens and say 'thank you.'   I hope your Thanksgiving  is wonderfully blessed with those you love and full plates.  For so many of us who will be alone, hungry, cold and forgotten my hope is that you will be touched by the gift of another's generosity and that your hearts will feel the blessings of the warmth and kindness we all have to share. 

Happy Thanksgiving my friends and all who stop by to give me encouragement and hope.  You have touched my life deeply.  Now go eat some pumpkin pie!

giving thanks...

he Pilgrim’s thanksgiving feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It lasted three days and included 50 surviving pilgrims and approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians, including Chief Massasoit. Their menu differed from modern Thanksgiving dinners and included berries, shellfish, boiled pumpkin, and deer.


I am one of those 'count your blessings' type of people.  Through much adversity I have learned to 'try' and see the blessings of each day.  Some days are especially hard, like when a family member dies or you spend weeks on end in the hospital or rehabbing your broken body, but even then there are blessings.  I haven't always been this way and it is my belief that I am because of the trials and travails that I have been through.  I really do have a point here albeit lost in all my blathering.  I have been richly blessed.  I have people who love me, care about me and for me.  I have survived without the burden of bitterness.  I have survived to see the incredible sunset that graces us each day. ( I know the sun also rises but I am usually sleeping, still I am grateful!)   I have survived.

For all of you survivors out there, and that is everyone of you, take a moment today to look towards the heavens and say 'thank you.'   I hope your Thanksgiving/Hanukkah are wonderfully blessed with those you love and full plates.  For so many of us who will be alone, hungry, cold and forgotten my hope is that you will be touched by the gift of other's generosity and that your hearts will feel the blessings of the warmth and kindness we all have to share. 

Proclamation...

 while we are all busy basting our turkey, baking pies, and gathering around the dinner table we should take more than just a few moments to remember why we are here, on this day, to give thanks.  As I was looking around for some interesting facts about Thanksgiving I kept coming back to the one that I first saw a few years ago. 

The Pilgrims made

seven times more graves than houses.

no Americans have ever been

more impoverished than these who,

nevertheless,

set aside a day of

Thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

can you imagine?  If they were able to set aside a day of thanks under those conditions then I can certainly set aside a moment of each day to reflect on my blessings and give thanks.   My heart is so full and the tears come easily as I thank each and every one of you for the support, concern, compassion and friendship that you have given me.  I truly am blessed to have found so many wonderful hearts through this crazy blog world.  To say 'thank you' is never enough.  May you be blessed with His mercy and touched by His grace, and may you enjoy the blessings of your family and friends and remember those who are passed.   

Happy Thanksgiving....be well, be safe, be grateful...every day you have a choice.

in part;

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility [sic], and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

while their houses laid unbuilt....

...the pilgrims managed to set aside a day of giving thanks.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity. ... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melodie Beattie

Wishing all of my family and friends a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Travel safe, be warm, share in the delight of the day.  May you and yours be Blessed with the joy of being expected.   Happy Thanksgiving.

On a side note;  There will only be two of us at this holiday table this year as our children will be visiting with their in-laws.  As it so happens our wedding anniversary falls on this day of thanks and so as we started out as two, we will celebrate our 38th year of marriage as two and toast each other to many, many more filled with love, laughter, patience, friendship, smiles, tears and immeasurable joy.

Give me five...

...it's been on my mind a lot.  Thanksgiving.  Did you know that the Pilgrims made seven times more graves than houses?  Even in the midst of their impoverished existence they still found the time to be grateful.  They still were able to set apart a day of thanks.

I admit I try to be grateful when things are going well.  It's easy to give thanks for the everyday luxuries that we take for granted...a home, food, a car, clothes, pets.  And of course we always say thanks for our family and friends.  But when times are difficult how often do we set aside a time to give thanks?  Not for the difficult times but for the gifts we have been given during those times, the ones that get us through, the simplest of joys.

I took a moment today to stop and think...actually dig down deep in my heart and give gratitude for the more unusual gifts in my life.

My parents;  even though they raised me during the turbulent 60's they still managed to teach me respect, for myself and others.  They taught me faith and gave me an exemplary example of what a good marriage should be.  I never told them how much I appreciated all they gave up for me, all they did for me.  They didn't have it easy and yet they instilled a sense of values and family to their children that lives on and on.  Thank you Pop and TT.

Waldorf salad and stuffed dates;  two of my favourite holiday dishes, handmade by my mother whose wretched arthritic hands could barely hold a knife.  It was truly a treat that was made with love and something I enjoy even now.  If I close my eyes I can picture her rolling those walnut stuffed dates in powdered sugar and laying them on a crystal dish.  I used to bring home the leftover salad and dates and eat them for breakfast the next day!

The secret stuffing recipe;  for years and years after my folks died I tried and tried to make the family stuffing recipe.  Year after year I failed.  I could not figure out what I was doing wrong.  It seems that my mother never wrote down the recipe but my brother was able to get it out of her, and he wisely wrote it down.  It seems the secret to her stuffing and my downfall was something as simple as poultry seasoning.  I've got it now!

Health;  even though I have a lack of it I am quite happy to have any at all.  Things are not easy with this disease and it's horrible complications but so far we have managed to get through it together.  When one person in the family has a disease the entire family has a disease and if we don't work together then it will be me against the world.  I am stable and for now that is more than I can expect or hope for.

Turner Movie Classics;  I'm a night owl.  Getting to bed before 3am is an early night for me.  That's probably why I enjoy naps so much!  And I love TMC...classic movies from the 40's are the best in my book and a great way to spend the late night sitting next to my hubby while he sleeps in front of the t.v...we don't have a television in our bedroom so we just sit up all night long with the classics!

So how about you...can you dig down deep in your heart and share an unusual blessing?

A grateful heart...

google images

The Pilgrims made

seven times more graves than houses.

no Americans have ever been

more impoverished than these who,

nevertheless,

set aside a day of

Thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

...if the Pilgrims, who spent days digging graves while their houses
lay unbuilt, can take the time to be grateful then I, who sometimes gets lost in self-pity, anger and resentment, then I...I must be grateful.

The next few days will be busy ones as we prepare for the coming together of our family and friends to celebrate and give thanks.

Tomorrow, if I can find the woods beneath the snow, I will see what gifts mother nature has for me to use in my holiday centerpiece.

I will find Gratitude in the day and look for 'gifts' that I often take for granted.

Sending you the Peace and Joy that can only come from having a Grateful Spirit.  Blessings to you and yours...

Monday's **snap**...

...there is nary a photo in my camera that has naught to do with my surgery scar so I will spare all of you that miserable sight.  All that to say..no pics this week!

There is a palpable excitement in the air here. Anticipation and excitement growing, laughter and whispered secrets flowing, visions of food and fun and shared memories.  The season is upon us.  Those of you that live in this area know what I am talking about...not the season of giving, no, the season of s.n.o.w.

We usually get one big snow storm a year.  I know, talk about a bunch of babies, but this year with La Nina we are expecting a rather harsh winter and already it has not disappointed.  It's been snowing all day.  Schools are cancelled for the morning and there are huddled whispers of having to postpone the Holiday.  You have never seen such a frenzy as would occur when snow is in the forecast.  Where are the chains??!

Surgery, surgery, where to start.  It started with a quick trip to the operating room to have this infernal thyroid cancer removed and ended with me spitting out my two, new, front teeth.  (The one's I had to have capped after breaking them off biting into a frozen three musketeer bar at Halloween).  Between that and my new-found allergy to latex the surgery was the easy part.

We will know more Tuesday when the pathology is back and I have a follow-up appointment.   Then onward to the dentist for some new, 'new' front teeth and Thanksgiving at my daughters' house...what about you?

Thanks...Giving...Gratitude...

 

for the beauty of the earth

for the glory of the skies,

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies,

Lord of all, to thee we raise

this our hymn of Grateful praise.

Follicott S. Pierpoint, 1864

be safe,

be Grateful,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FRIENDS

As time goes by, the countdown begins...

The Pilgrims made

seven times more graves than houses.

no Americans have been

more impoverished than these who,

nevertheless,

set aside a day of thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

...if the pilgrims, who spent days digging graves while their houses lay unbuilt, can take the time to be grateful then I, who sometimes gets lost in self-pity, anger, resentment, then I...I must be grateful.

The next few days will be busy ones as we prepare for the coming together of our family and friends to celebrate and give thanks. 

 Tomorrow, I will take a walk in the woods and see what gifts mother nature has for me to use in my holiday centerpiece. 

I will find Gratitude in this day and look for 'gifts' that I often take for granted.  Sending you the peace and joy that can only come from being grateful.

It's the great debate...

pie debate that is. It's been going on since the beginning of the celebration we call Thanksgiving. When I was growing up we always had pumpkin pie and mincemeat pie. My mom liked the mincemeat pie while the rest of us found it quite bizarre. I think maybe she was just glad to have something to herself after all the work of the traditional fixings. (Not that she ate an entire pie by herself--my dad may have helped) In our home the kitchen was my mothers domain and even on holidays you were not allowed in until the meal was complete. When my husband came into the family he added the pecan pie to the list of favorites and an occasional apple pie. My son being the apple pie connoisseur. I am still convinced that the pumpkin pie stands alone.



So what is your favorite pie for Thanksgiving? What will you be dipping your fork into just before you slip into the turkey-coma? Do you have that 'one' pie that is a family tradition? Pumpkin, Mincemeat, Apple, Sweet-potato, Pecan...choose your weapon.