GIVING . . .

Today in the U.S. we celebrate Thanksgiving Day--a time of offering our thanks for the many blessings we've received.

There's another way to look at Thanks-giving--emphasis on giving. Here's a poem by Alberto Rios, poet laureate of Arizona, that addresses that topic. I hope you like it.

When Giving Is All We Have

Alberto Ríos

                                              One river gives
                                              Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.
 

[Copyright © 2014 by Alberto Ríos. Used with permission of the author.]

Born in 1952, Alberto Ríos is the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona and the author of many poetry collections, including A Small Story about the Sky (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). In 1981, he received the Walt Whitman Award for his collection Whispering to Fool the Wind (Sheep Meadow Press, 1982). He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2014 to 2020.

 

ARE WE
THANKFUL?

Next week we'll celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S. For the first time since COVID took over our lives in March 2020, we may be able to celebrate one holiday in the "old style" that was what we expected to happen. November is a good time to start.

In case your situation is different--family all live too far away to get back for the holiday, people with jobs that require them to work in spite of it being a holiday, no one for you to join for a big noisy meal--whatever!--if your situation is different, you can still celebrate.

Facebook has a history of "30 Days of Gratitude"--you get on your page and list what you're grateful for that day. Pretty soon, Day 3 becomes Day 12 and then Day 26. How did that happen? Well, my thought is: once you start listing gratitudes, they keep multiplying.

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A few years ago I posted a week of gratitudes here on Thursday's Child--something for each day of the week, seven in all. Another time I listed 20 (!) reasons I'm grateful. (Surprised myself on that one.)

If you can't quite get your head around being grateful (some people don't even like the word, I'm told), then maybe if you call them blessings you'll feel more comfortable. A blessing is a gift--something you didn't ask/beg/plead for--it just came your way. And you accepted it. Or, you didn't.

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I'll start the ball rolling . . . and you must remember I'm not a "people person" in the accepted sense of the phrase, so keep that in mind as you read.

So, here goes. I'm grateful:

1. for family members who keep in touch--emails, texts, voice mails, in-person visits, letters and cards sent via USPS, Facebook postings, photos sent however. 

2. for friends who keep in touch--lots of Facebook postings, emails, letters and cards, texts, phone calls, in-person visits.

3. for kind neighbors--next-door, across the street, across town; people who give of their time to help my daughter and me with leaf removal, gutter cleaning, snow removal, outdoor painting--whatever jobs are too difficult or too time-consuming and a little help will be appreciated. People who share their baked goods from time to time. (We get a loaf of bread from next-door every Thanksgiving.)

4. for healthcare personnel whose lives are dedicated to keeping patients healthy, or if that isn't possible, for making patients comfortable.

5. for people who love their work: lawn service folks, carpenters and other contractors, letter carriers, cheerful checkouts at the grocery and discount stores, receptionists at professional offices who treat the folks who walk through the door as if they were the best thing that's happened all day. To name a few--there are tons more.

6. for people who are good at their creative tasks and want to share them. These include folks I know in person (painters, musicians, quilters, knitters) as well as online folks who share their expertise on YouTube and invite feedback from people they'll probably never meet.

7. for all the folks who figured out how we can have Sunday worship in our own homes; meetings via Internet; entertainment on TV and via the Internet that doesn't require us to be in crowds.

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Not bad for a non-people person, wouldn't you say? 

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On Thanksgiving Day my daughter and I will welcome her sister from Ohio for dinner at our house. We'll have roast chicken (none of us is crazy about turkey), roasted root vegetables, cranberry sauce or relish (to be decided), some kind of bread-y thing (gluten free, of course), and--TA-DA!--pumpkin pie made from Ohio pumpkins. Don't feel sorry for us if we don't have mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, green bean casserole, or five kinds of pie. We'll fix and serve and eat what we like best and enjoy it in companionable company.

Wishing you the same!

In the meantime, don't forget those Gratitudes (or Blessings)--if you write down one a day, you'll have 13 by the end of November!

 THANK YOU, VETERANS!

Today we honor all who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

In my family, those are a grandson who served in the Army; my son-in-law who served in the Navy; and a stepgrandson, who also served in the Navy.

Thank you, Derek, Marv, and Adam! God bless you!

 MINUTAE

Muh-NOO-shuh--(close enough)--Little Stuff!

Our temps are drop-drop-dropping, overnights are sinking to the 20s, daytime temps try to keep us encouraged with 40s (I guess that's better than 20s or teens!) . . . so I'm scurrying around trying to round up some Little Stuff to think about, mull over, smile at, even laugh! Little Stuff keeps me from sinking along with the thermometer readings.

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Couple of days ago I jotted down a list of Little Stuff that made me smile. Here's some of the list:

--the city leaf truck came by! Apparently there are leaves down in some neighborhoods. My street isn't doing its part because the leaf vacuum passed right by most of the houses on my side of the street and found a few little piles of leafy stuff across from my house.

--and while I'm on the subject of leaves, I'm really disappointed in this year's crop. Driving through the countryside I see trees in the distance--completely covered in gold--yellow to bright gold to bronze. Where's the red? Where's the orange? There are even green leaves, for pity's sake, still hanging on. The only red leaves I've discovered are on ornamental trees planted in landscaped yards. Ma Nature didn't come through this year.

--autumn photos for 2021 are few and far between, if I want color. You'll see repeats of pics from years gone by. Just saying.

--lunch with friends. While it's not truly Little Stuff, it's a once-in-a-while event in my life again and it makes me happy. A 15-20 minute drive through the country (see above reference to disappointing autumn trees) and I arrive at a great restaurant that serves good tavern food--large variety of sandwiches, five or six kinds of potatoes (I have to specify French fries, or I might end up with American, hashed brown, cottage, or a couple others), chili (obviously homemade on the premises), perpetual coffee. And that's just what we were served. The menu runs to three or more pages entirely full of choices and options.

--but food's not what lunch with friends is about--it's about catching up on over 30 years' worth of lives lived, stuff we didn't know about each other. Funny how life just interferes, takes a sudden left turn, and the next thing you know, it's been five years since you saw folks who used to hang out at your house at least a couple of times a month. And then it's ten years . . . .

--along with chili and French fries, I'm rediscovering what I think of as Winter Foods: thick vegetable soup, panini (homemade), fruit cobbler/pie . . . the list goes on and on. I'm not big on hot chocolate because I can't find one I like with faux milk (soy milk has its own flavor, and I'm not crazy about rice milk or almond milk; and definitely not coconut milk). So I stick with my coffee and the occasional pot of tea.

--the last few days I've been moving summer clothes to the off-season closet and bringing out autumn/winter clothes; amazing what I already had in stock--may not even have to go shopping! I'm well-supplied with coats, scarves, and gloves, sox, sweaters, pants of various weights, sweatshirts . . . could start my own shop!

--one fun thing is finding the blankets and quilts that were stored away last April. Already they're beginning to feel good on the bed. And they look lovely.

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I've saved the best till last--I fell in love. I know, I know--that isn't a Little Thing, but actually, it was!

I went to the feed-and-seed store to buy birdseed. The people who own and operate it are a local family. That day they were dog-sitting--in a small zipped doggie bed on the floor sat a 13-week-old Shih Tzu. The woman who worked there said, "Here, you can hold her." (I think my awwww look must've told her I was smitten.) That little pup snuggled up under my chin, after giving me a few dozen puppy kisses, and I think if I'd been quick enough, I could've hidden her under my jacket, paid for my birdseed, and smuggled her out of there. But I just stood there and absorbed. The episode was so entrancing I forgot to ask her name!

So I fell in love with a Little Dog, which I said I'd never do. Never, ever. I'm a Big Dog Person. Little Dogs are too easy to step on, or get lost in my house amongst the boxes of fabric and yarn, or once they find their voices, they are too high-pitched and hurt my ears. But after that Brief Encounter--

Fortunately, the pup was already spoken for, but I have sweet memories. I do wish I'd asked what her name is.

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So today I'm celebrating the Little Stuff--the Minutae--in my life. There's always something to celebrate--something to be thankful for--something to share with someone else.

Find your Minutae--and share it!

Blessings,

Thursday's Child