Thanks given

A quick read at Wikipedia this morning says that few countries on this planet have a holiday called Thanksgiving set aside in appreciation for life and gifts given.

Canada celebrates Thanksgiving, though our neighbors to the north pull up to the table on a different Thursday, theirs in October. Granada and Liberia have one, too, and even a town in the Netherlands celebrates Thanksgiving. That town, Leiden, just happens to be the place where Pilgrims lived before they set out for the New World back in the 17th century to found Plymouth Plantation and, after much hardship, to eventually celebrate that First Thanksgiving we commemorate this week.

Much about our ‘Puritan ethic’ lifestyle in the United States tends to keep us tightly focused on work and the acquisition of wealth and other stuff most of the time. It is good that Abraham Lincoln and his Union Congress institutionalized Thanksgiving as a national holiday back in the middle of the Civil War in 1863. Times had to have been terribly tough then, too, for many American families. Taking time to remember a good harvest and the gratitude of Pilgrims, even in the midst of war and other hardships, is a fine American tradition we can be proud of.

I surely hope your Thanksgiving was a good one. We had a delicious free range turkey raised locally and a tableful of other good food. And around our table sat my 89 year-old mother, Cindy & me, and a family of friends whose maternal head had to survive a war in Bosnia, pregnant with twins, before she could make her way across the Atlantic to her ‘New World’ experience.

Life is not great for all those who gathered around our table this Thanksgiving. My mother struggles with her balance, trying not to fall when she walks. She is very aware of her own mortality and realizes a broken hip is something to avoid at all cost. Her eyes have been doctored for years and still work well enough for her, but are always a concern. Her hearing is another ‘lost gift’ she contends with using hearing aids. Still, she was all smiles this Thanksgiving and even brought along a pecan pie baked at the retirement place where she lives. Cindy Lou thought it was one of the best pecan pies she’s ever tasted.

Our other guests, too, have many concerns. First, working one full-time job and a couple of part time jobs doesn’t bring home enough ‘bacon’ to keep a mom and three kids financially afloat. Child support from the ex-husband, necessary for the mortgage payment, has been irregular of late and the source of much concern. The twins are now in high school and have young-adult expenses that mom would like to provide, but just can’t. I’m afraid the kids’ cell phones will be a casualty come first of the year.

Still, there was laughter at our Thanksgiving feast, and much gratitude. One story was told of the 12 year-old at our table, who at the age of two, while on a family visit to Syria, was left in a coma after hitting his head hard after coming down a park slide. In that male-dominated Mideastern world, his visiting mother could hardly find a doctor who would accept her authority to treat the boy. Still, she did not relent until she found a doctor who performed brain-saving surgery and today, that beautiful young man does quite well in school. So do his lovely sisters.

Maybe we save the deepest thanks for those hardships and tragedies we somehow survive, whether by the grace of God, medical miracles, good fortune, or some metaphysical combination of energy.

In any case, I’m very grateful we in America have a Thanksgiving holiday. I am thankful for cultural ancestors who set aside a time after the annual harvest to give thanks for both tangible and intangible gifts given. I give thanks for the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, property, and happiness in this wonderful land we call The United States of America. We are a blessed people.

Today’s elder idea: The prayer offered at our Thanksgiving table this year:

Mother, Father, God, Universal Power:

Remind us daily of the sanctity of all life.

Touch our hearts with the glorious oneness of all creation,

As we strive to respect all the living beings on this planet.

Penetrate our souls with the beauty of this earth,

As we attune ourselves to the rhythm and flow of the seasons.

Awaken our minds with the knowledge to achieve a world in perfect harmony

And grant us the wisdom to realize that we can have heaven on earth.

Jo Poore

from Earth Prayers: From Around the World, 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations for Honoring the Earth.

Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, ed. (Harper 1991)