For Your Thanksgiving Contemplation





These lovely flowers, sent from Jim's sisters, will grace our Thanksgiving table tomorrow. I have much for which to be thankful. They include all the usual things; health, a roof over my head, three squares, friends, family, etc. But more importantly I am thankful that Jim has gotten through his treatment and will be (WILL BE) returned to health.

Jim had a pretty good day today. He started out strong; sweeping up (yet more) leaves, scooping leaves out of the pool, generally being the tidy-upper outside. This afternoon I went up to Sacramento to see my doc; all is well. A bit of a weight loss so please, no more. The traffic heading east even early in the afternoon was at a crawl all the way. Eastbound was even worse coming back. Surely all those people aren't heading up to Tahoe? By the time I returned home Jim was seriously flagging and is now asleep, head down on the dining room table. It will be an early night for him. The edema in his legs is a bit better after taking his meds this morning, so he is a bit more comfortable. And my anxiety level is back to it's usual tick on the meter.

As I noted yesterday, lamb shanks are on the menu for my Thanksgiving plate. I bought them today and can almost taste them already!

History note: Forty-three years ago today my generation lost the first of its martyrs. John Fitzgerald Kennedy: RIP.

The following is a poem by John Berryman titled "A Minnesota Thanksgiving". I heard it on the radio and thought it hit the spot. Enjoy!

Minnesota Thanksgiving

For that free Grace bringing us past great risks
& thro' great griefs surviving to this feast
sober & still, with the children unborn and born,
among brave friends, Lord, we stand again in debt
and find ourselves in the glad position: Gratitude.

We praise our ancestors who delivered us here
within warm walls all safe, aware of music,
likely toward ample & attractive meat
with whatever accompaniment
Kate in her kind ingenuity has seen fit to devise,

and we hope - across the most strange year to come -
continually to do them and You not sufficient honour
but such as we become able to devise
out of decent or joyful conscience & thanksgiving.
Yippee!
Bless then, as Thou wilt, this wilderness board.

Wherever you are, with whomever you celebrate I wish you the joy of sharing, the warmth and love of family and friendship, a Thanksgiving meal of unsurpassed deliciousness, and the true understanding of all your several blessings.