Gobble, Gooble, Gobble Poof!

My friend "Salamander" and I, for some reason, used to slip that phrase into conversations. Maybe there were reasons, but it's equally likely that there weren't.
*shrug*

Thanksgiving (which is two weeks away) is one of my favorite holidays; has been for years.
The weather, more often than not, fits my description of "fine." Sunny and chilly enough for a sweatshirt and gloves. Maybe a scarf and a hat, maybe not. And I love the smell of fall. Just love it!

Let's not forget the food. If I were to commit suicide, it would be from putting too much nutmeg in a pumpkin pie and then eating too much of it. And my aunt always made the BEST chocolate pie EVER. Even my sister, who is pretty good at filling the dessert table, can't really duplicate it. This chocolate pie was so good she would make at least two glass cake pans and two round pie tins full of it. And there would be maybe 5 pieces left after the crew was done for the day. (The "crew" being my grandparents, their 7 kids & spouses, 13 grandkids, my great grandpa and great uncle, and a significant other or two. That's a lot of people in three small rooms, two, really since there was a card table and food taking up most of the kitchen.)

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was great because it meant an extra day off from school (to recover from the food coma, I suppose). Now that I'm an adult working as a desk jockey, it's great because it means an extra day off from work (also to recover from the food coma). A day off with no obligations (although this has become my dad's traditional day for our nuclear family dinner since the courts declared his daughters to be with their mothers that Thursday).

Also another reason I like Thanksgiving now that I'm an adult is that it's one of the easiest holidays to travel on. You can travel light, not having to worry about transporting gifts in either direction. And the weather is far more likely to be favorable than during Christmas.

But one of the biggest reasons I like the holiday is the spirit behind it.
I LOVE being grateful. Some days we have a lot of things to be bitter about, but we always, always, always have something to be grateful for. We woke up this morning. We were able to get to wherever we are. We have senses and limbs that work. If you're reading this, you have access to a world outside yourself.
And that's just the starting point. Wait 'til I get going! (Where was I? Austrailia. Austrailia, right. And, as we all know, Austrailia is entirely peopled with criminals, who are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me.)

A lot of us have more than that. We have at least one friend, maybe some folks we think of as family, people who listen and help when bad stuff happens. There's food somewhere we can eat (if not in our fridge, in a friend's or someplace in the community). We've got shirts on our backs and shoes on our feet. And they're clean, too. We have access to some means of shelter from the elements when they become undesireable. There are hobbies and activities we enjoy and we have the means to do them. We have knowledge and wisdom that only a few medical conditions can take from us. Things like how to speak, read, and do simple math.

But some of us have even more than that! (Aren't we blessed?) We know that we are loved by a father in heaven and that we have a brother who has done everything for us, including (but certainly not limited to) giving up his own life. We know that, if we follow his lead and do what he did to become the best person we possibly can, we can spend eternity in the presence of such generous souls.

I love this season because, unlike other holidays, it pushes all of us to focus on what we have (and what we have to give) rather than dwell upon what we've lost (or perhaps never had).