Thank YOU!

by coffeesister · 8 comments

Whether you’ve already celebrated, aren’t celebrating
or are just looking forward to the food:
Happy Thanksgiving!

Ultimately a harvest festival, it’s appreciation for the necessities of life over the niceties that’s always been at the core of Thanksgiving in all its forms. It’s also a symbol of hope; this country’s First Thanksgiving had a cooperative spirit that is slowly but hopefully surely being reawakened.

Wishing you a Thanksgiving graced w/good & simple things.

When fortunate enough to be with my family on this holiday, I ask each of them to share something for which they’re thankful.. As you are my surrogate family, I’m asking the same & can hardly wait to read your comments! It’s quite clear by now that having a home dominates my thanks-giving currently. Having lost mine at the holidays last year, regaining one at the holidays this year has a significance that’s not so much about the holidays themselves but due more to such events being centering by nature. A dear friend with whom we’d lost touch but who had stayed with us for a time, e-mailed me in response to my thoughts on home:

I write to let you know that in the decade since we last spoke you guys stand out uniquely–and I see from all the available on-line materials you have generated, that uniqueness becomes ever more you. I write because specifically The Rhodes’ was the last place I got a sense of the Home I believe you write about–where love manifests–love as wholeness–love as relation with creation…

This touches on the fact that I’m also forming a home here; with you.. So, while I’m abundantly thankful for my wee studio, I’m utterly & ever-thankful for my growing online family. I’m admittedly thankful too that I get an actual Thanksgiving meal today with RhodesTer before he heads to his hotel of employ. Thus, I’ll raise a glass to you as I eat more than I have in a very long time.

(|_|*cheers*|_|)
“He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true Thanksgiving
Comes from the heart.”
~ John A. Shedd ~

Pass the mug; share the love <3

Tagged as: holidays, Thanksgiving

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Lorna 22 November 2007 at 11:00 am: We’ve already had thanksgiving, and wrongly or rightly, it’s not as festive an occasion in Canada, nor as important a one. We did get together as a family—the first time after Emily and Morgan’s wedding, and had a wonderful dinner that Emily prepared. We were very mindful of the fact that it was the first Thanksgiving since my mother died, and spent some time recalling our departed loved ones as well as delighting in the presence of everyone, family and friends, who were able to be there with us. Specifically, on your thanksgiving, I’m grateful that you have a home and presumably are feeling more secure, I have been grateful every time I read your combined comments on life in exotic California, I will be grateful if the card, which I’d addressed and stamped and dropped, I think, on Bank Street while I was shopping for my granddaughters, reaches you.

Have a wonderful holiday.

Go Em! Newly married & already hosting Thanksgiving!? I know your mother’s heartfelt absence made the holiday bittersweet yet she was there in spirit. Tis a marvelous thing to share the memories of those we miss. Meanwhile, having our gratitude shared enhances it. I do hope the card finds its way but thank you so much for the tho’t.

the unhostess |_|) “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” ~ G. K. Chesterton
2 Lorie 22 November 2007 at 11:14 am: Happy Thanksgiving to you all as well. So glad you’ll actually be able to celebrate this year.

Thanx, my friend of old (not to be confused with old friend)! Please visit more often..

your younger old friend |_|) “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ~ Mark Twain
3 Nick Carlton 22 November 2007 at 11:55 am: I have the disadvantage of not being with friends or family this Thanksgiving, and I’m a little sad about that… But my work didn’t provide me with the opportunity this year to do so…

However, I simply adore your blogs and have added them to both of my own… It’s certainly good to see writers who ‘step out of the box’ so to speak and express their feelings in new and unique ways, with color, flare and style..

As soon as Strange Corridor is approved I’ll add you to my friends list and neighborhood there too like you are on Personal Paranoia… But I’ve already added both your sites to my pages…

Your work is refreshing, open, honest and a joy to read… Keep up the good work and enjoy your holiday today!

Peace and white light, Nick

Aside from the meal Rhodester & I snuck in before he went to work, I was alone & seldom do see my family this time of year. I hope your CHRISTmas proves more peopled tho’ I can’t say mine will. Your feedback & encouragement are ever so appreciated; thanx for the review!

another orphan of circumstance |_|) “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict — alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.” ~ Dorothy Thompson
4 Jodie 22 November 2007 at 4:21 pm: I’m glad to be here, and thankful to have so many friends and family who are still here, too. I hope your day was lovely (mine was!).

I’m glad you’re back; you were missed.. Here’s to both of us sticking around!? (|_|*cheers*|_|)

“The bird a nest,
The spider a web,
[Hu]man friendship.”
~ William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
5 Rene 22 November 2007 at 4:34 pm: Oh Sister, thank YOU! I love reading your blog and am thankful that there are such intelligent, caring people out there in the world like you.

You and Rhodester deserve such a lovely Thanksgiving after what you’ve been through. I am so happy you get to have a really snazzy one at the Milton! Enjoy.

Intelligence & caring are crucial to all else, especially each other; I can’t thank you enough for such a compliment! Thanx too for the tho’t that we deserve a special holiday; it was special to not only have a traditional turkey meal but together, even if it didn’t prove snazzy due to there being no busses. I’m thankful we have a Coco’s next door & perhaps the lack of sweet potatoes is what left me room for the pie that was included with the meal..

your coffeesister |_|) “[Others] say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ [They] make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.” ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
6 Maureen 23 November 2007 at 8:26 am: I’m thankful for finding blogs such as yours and Rhodester’s where I can go and be entertained and enlightened.

And I’m thankful for my family. It’s one member less this year — my father passed away in August. But I’m thankful that I had him in my life for 47 years. I wish it could have been 57 or 67 or 77, but I’m so thankful he was my father.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to the two of you!
7 coffeesister 25 November 2007 at 9:03 am Twitter: @coffeesister: Like Lorna, you had to face a family-centric holiday without a parent for the first time! Rhodester was there in ’93 so we understand your pain. Your father certainly seems special & I’m sorry you didn’t have more time with him. On a lighter note, entertain & enlighten is absolutely what we hope to do; thank you! Tis these thankful comments, along with a text or two, that made it a Happy Thanksgiving..

|_|) “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” ~ William Arthur Ward
8 Elizabeth 8 December 2007 at 9:51 pm: I hope that everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving. It’s the people not the food that one is thankful for. For friends fill us up with love, thoughtfulness and hope. I am Very Thankful for my Friends in my life who are there for me and fulfill my life. xoxo