I'm sitting here on Thanksgiving Eve watching
family & friends interact in that familiar & occasionally annoying way so common to many families & considering what people might be thankful for.
My grandmother for the gift of more years than she might have expected, another holiday season, & maybe another.
My elderly & maiden aunt for the
family that loves her no matter how much the egghead she can be, even if it does take her an hour & a half to open a freaking package ...
My closest friend might be a little too defensively hostile to completely enjoy a world where it's more or less ok to be
gay but I'm certain that he's thankful for his extended family, the success of his business & his partner of 8 years. He’s certainly loyal &
there like no one I’ve ever known.
My dad for the woman that's loved him for more than 50 years & my mother for him, and no doubt for the surprising good
health that she enjoys after decades of difficulty & perhaps both of them for a son that doesn’t fault them for being human.
I watch my
kids & wonder, have I taught them to be thankful ? Maybe, maybe not yet. I wonder if they completely understand that the clothes on their backs exceed the value of the annual incomes of too many ... that the lifestyle of even seriously
income challenged people in the States is one of comfort, even excess, compared to much of the world. I wonder if they can really appreciate that they are cherished & that not everybody is.
I listen to my aunt arguing with her sister while my friend ruthlessly whoops my dad's ass at chess & my granny putters about
cleaning things that don't need
cleaning. As the cats studiously ignore all bipeds & the
kids roll collective eyeballs at everybody, I consider what I might be thankful for.
I think that it might be this that I have in spite of so many
mistakes … that I've lived this life, yet have another to go for. I love this family & I'm grateful for it, the often-turbulent blend of personalities, precocious kids, for purring cats & a slobbering grandbaby, a warm home with good
food,
books &
music & leisure.
Knowing that all of this is changing & always has while it oddly stayed the same only brings me to taking a minute to look it over, to enjoy it & lock it into memory. Kids are growing & expanding their
scope, some of us are playing an end
game & doing it gracefully while I find myself solidly in the mid
game with years more change ahead of me. I think I'm most thankful for having all of this
and that future of change to look forward to.
Pretty sappy, but I'm wondering what others are really thankful for. I think we often get too wrapped up in the difficulties of achieving what we want to really enjoy what we have ... and maybe forget that real happiness is in the striving & not necessarily in the having. Even so, I'm looking around a house that's really more crowded than I prefer & thinking that I have it all & always have.
The fact that I can & will have more just blows my mind.
Troubledour
(I still think we could use a forum for general chatter … couldn’t find a place to put a mindless ramble like this)