I do hope all of you who are celebrating the American Thanksgiving holiday are all having a wonderful day, whether relatively quiet or filled with raucous crowds and/or wild and rambunctious children.
I am not hosting, and only doing minor cooking: a side, a pie (the expected things) and some rolls, which I am making because I am thrilled to be exploring bread-baking again.
Otherwise, despite the fact that I grumble about the annoying stumbling blocks life keeps throwing in my plans, I have much to be thankful for:
Friends
A roof over my head, granted a very special one. My home provides a sanctuary from the world. But so should every home. I could wish that everyone has a place that they call home, and that their home can also be their sanctuary. These itself is a luxury beyond anything I can imagine.
Garbo
Food security
Relative health.
A morning walk in the cool brisk air, kicking the fallen leaves.
So many bright and happy things. The simple truth is that I am surrounded by beauty, grace, and joy. Always have been, and always will be, even as the world might possibly fall apart around me. Because these things — beauty, grace, joy — have nothing to do with life on this earth as it occurs around me, but exist as much as I am willing to see them and embrace them.
We in the United States have been fortunate enough to believe we have built a protective fortress that grants us immunity to the ills of the world, and it is shocking to learn that we were wrong. Suffering is constant. Pain exists and we are not immune. Anything we see or read could indeed be us. That sounds like a strange statement about thanks.
But those things only defeat human kindness, grace, and beauty if we allow them to steal our worth and our joy from us. Every life is an intense joy that should be treasured, and for this we should give thanks. I should give thanks.
I cannot change the universe or the world. I cannot defeat evil alone. I cannot make any universe, even the tiny one surrounding me, bow to my will and desires. But I can embrace life, treasure life, give thanks for life. I hope I can be kind.
I hope everyone, everywhere, finds some joy today.