Pondering deep thoughts?

I loved JB’s post yesterday about Walking Backwards: Looking forward. It struck a chord on so many levels. That and the comments got me thinking about my tendency to look back, usually searching for pieces of a puzzle, or for wisdom.

JB posed the question, am I scared to look ahead in case I lose my footing? She raises a good point about living in the present since our days are numbered.

She refers to herself as Pollyanna as it is a lovely moniker, and I confess to liking the idea. Though I often think of my optimistic view as ‘rose-coloured glasses’.

I found myself wondering if archeologists are in the present or the past? I mean, they try to rebuild the past.

Are those that trace genealogy in the present or past? I have spent eighteen months or more tracing family lines. It was indeed worthwhile because of what I found. But the whole project consumed my thoughts day and night.

Her section on walking backwards is actually common in the elder population.

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving but yesterday I got to meet a new addition to the family. My son’s dog:

Loki

Meet Loki. Five months. Think King German Shepherd. Right now all legs, paws, tail and ears, and the gentlest disposition I have ever encountered.

This has been a wonderful relaxing ME DAY, and I am refreshed. And so from North of 43 I wish you all a bit of gentle love

Previously posted on AWA about a gentle day!

American Thanksgiving From the Outside

I am not an American however I do have strong links which include having resided in Texas for a time, good personal friends, and of course about 60% of my blogging  commentors.  I have said more than once that I left a part of my heart in that wonderful state and it is true.  Geographically you are our nearest neighbors, but the heart of America is more than friends or readers or one state.  The whole world is going through some rough times and certainly the USA as much or even more than some.

American Thanksgiving is a pretty big holiday with the very source of it being about Thanks for all we have and all we have is not something that can be counted or displayed.  Sometimes it is enough to give thanks for just being.

I met some pretty fantastic people from the other side of the border who went out of their way to make my life richer, and some who still do today.

The heart of America resides all around the world in every country.  For all the grumblings and stereotyping and political and religious hoohaw and seeming discontent there is strength, dignity and compassion.  There are many without food, homes, or love in all our countries.  Lets remember them – and for all who whine about what they don’t have, please give thanks for what you do have no matter how small or meagre.

This is a day that Americans traditionally celebrate and give thanks.  Just to let you know there are others like myself that give special thanks today just for knowing you.

The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The First Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth in 1621. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Thankful Grateful but…

Christine GB King
Thankfulness, Gratitude, for what we have, for who we have, for when we have, but not so much for who we are. Who we are remains undone, unfinished for a life time and in Bagger Vance‘s words..Life is a game that can’t be won only played. Me? I figure it is in the how of life we determine the who of we.

Related articles

• What Are You Thankful For? (bellasugar.com)
• Be grateful. (jacmaries.wordpress.com)
• Practicing gratefulness, because life is AWESOME (katjevanloon.com)
• A jar of gratitude (cocoaflower.com)
• Gratitude is possible! (thesecondinnings.wordpress.com)

Mama Kat’s Thanksgiving Post

That Mama Kat

Mama Kat’s Thanksgiving Post

Naturally today being the most important holiday to our American friends all five of this week’s prompts are about Thanksgiving; favourite recipes, traditions, fav memory, poems and who is cooking the turkey.  There are a considerable number of us outside the festivities but this does not exclude us from participating or giving thanks.

Thankfulness is international.  That is, the celebration and appreciation of thanks.  We can all be thankful but of course we do not have to be either. And what we are thankful for depends on age.  When I was a child I was thankful for a new toy perhaps.  I tend to think children were actually more thankful back then, but I could be wrong.

Even though it is popular, not just today to express our thankfulness, I wonder if some of us are really capable of giving sincere thanks or if we just say it.  I have met people so embittered by life they could not see anything to be glad of.  I wonder if in spite of what we have if we are losing our ability to be thankful, if we are just becoming expectant.

I won’t give a list of the things I am grateful for today, I will just give thanks that I am grateful.  It takes heart to be capable of thankfulness and to have heart we must have the ability to feel for others not ourselves.  Thankfulness is not about ourselves, it is about all we are connected to outside of, which then becomes inside of us.

So no thanksgiving here, just a blessing:

MAY ALL TODAY, WHETHER ALONE OR WITH OTHERS, FIND THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS TOUCHED.

Photobucket

Falling Off the Map

Falling Off the Map

It’s amazing how one day of not blogging turns into two or three.  I started a number of times each day just to wander off either physically or mentally.  The notes below I did on Sunday basking in the warmth of a true summer like day.

‘Canadian Thanksgiving

This is my favorite holiday of the year, unsullied by commercialism, and stress, a true time of thanksgiving.  Most years it is cold, many times snowy and the odd time like this year it is warm and sunny.  When I say warm I mean like 70ish which is warm for the frozen north.  I am outside, reclining under a cloudless sky, so blue it could be it could be a vast warm ocean, wearing summer togs and listening to leaves rustling from a gentle breeze.  Somewhere distant there is the drone of a lawn mower.

This is the time for family, turkey, warm smells and vibrant colors.  It’s a lazy relaxing holiday with most of the work being a little grocery shopping and some cooking..even lazier now that they have stuffed turkeys which are pretty delicious.  No fuss, no muss, just a little post eating mess.

For some reason, regardless of name, this seems such a natural time of year for giving thanks and snuggling down for winter.  Of course bears snuggle down not people but it is the thought of the whole thing.

I like that there is no thought of gifts and the accompanying stress it’s just about people.  For many years it was at this feast that I made a point of inviting people I knew were going to be alone so aside from family there were friends who became family.

We often think of the first Thanksgiving arriving with settlers to North America but in fact feasts of thanksgiving at the end of harvest were celebrated by our native brothers and sisters for centuries before.’

The plan was to give a more in-depth history of Thanksgiving practices in Canada and to baste flavorful delightful photos, however I was suddenly felled by…yes…my annual October cold.  Nuts.  And Monday I was hosting dinner for my family.  Thankfully my son and daughter-in-law took over most of the work so what was to be a quiet relaxing day for them turned out rather hectic.  Today things are back to normal  and I am pretending this cold and sore throat are soothed by left overs most notably so far…lemon meringue pie, pecan pie, bread and cheese.  And it is only noon!