A favorite holiday

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. I think I like the comparative simplicity of it - not really any parties to go to or to dress up for, no gifts to buy*.... and the idea behind the day, that it's a day for being thankful.

(* Don't get me wrong; I love finding gifts for people I love, and I love receiving gifts, it's just...it's nice to have a SIMPLE holiday before the more involved one)

I might feel differently if I were the one cooking the big meal. Then again, I might not. I like cooking, and I especially enjoy cooking for an "audience." I might not be so crazy about putting up lots of people for part of a week (but then again, I chose a small house partly for that reason; I think I'd offer to pay for the hotel if I had many relatives coming.)

Though for me, at least now, the holiday is still one where I get to have the "kid" role - oh, I have to travel for it, which is mostly different than when I was a kid (but a few years we went to visit various family). Once I get there, I don't have to do much. I usually offer to make the stuffing (we are Northerners; for us, it is stuffing, not dressing) or chop vegetables or something. But it's nice. It's just a day when everything stops, and I tend to feel like there should be days when everything pretty much stops. (I admit a certain opposition to stores feeling the need to open on Thanksgiving. Oh, I get it: some of the workers are probably delighted with both the overtime and a chance to get away from their families, maybe some of the shoppers need to get away....but I just don't like the idea of a 24/7/365 marketplace. I know, I'm old fashioned. I grew up in a small town and still remember grocery stores not opening on Sundays...and here, most of the small stores and even some of the restaurants still don't)

A day to take a breath, and instead of focusing on the more-bigger-better that we all get tricked into chasing after at work, to be able to focus on the good in the here and now.

Yesterday's sermon included the point that Thanksgiving should be not just for past blessings, but for the current good things, and hope for the future...that the Pilgrims, even as bad as they had it in that first year were thankful that they were still alive (even as they remembered the roughly half of them who didn't survive). And hopefulness for the future success of their enterprise...

I honestly don't think we as a culture are grateful enough. Or that we stop enough to marvel at the good things we do have. In many ways, I, a fairly ordinary middle-class woman, have it far better than kings and queens did of even a few hundred years ago - clean water, medications to treat many diseases, reliable central heat, nutritious food year-round....And then all of the littler things: that I have hobbies that are fascinating and enjoyable. That I was able to develop my mind to its capacity. That I can afford the things I need, and even most of the things I want. That I have interesting work....and on, and on.

This year, of course, I'm also grateful that the weather improved, and I should be able to drive safely to the station.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it.