Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. There’s none of the guilt and commercialization that plague most other American holidays (well, maybe some of the guilt about that second helping…). It’s about family, togetherness, good food, and gratitude. All of these are high on my list of the Big Things in Life.It’s been about ten months now since I started this blog, and I think I’ve been mostly faithful to my goal of posting once a week. I wanted to thank you, my readers, for being faithful to me. It’s through your attention and comments that I’ve continued and found new sources of inspiration and reasons to write. I am honored to share my insights with you, and I hope that you continue to find them worth reading.
What I’ve noticed, since starting to write in earnest a few years ago, is that the Small Things are what support the Big Things. The Small Things are what we each contribute, what personalizes the Big Things, and what makes the Big Things special, unique, and essential.I thought it might be fun to share some of those Small Things with one another. You can leave yours as a comment here (if you have a Google account. If you don’t have a Google account, it is free to sign up, although Google may gain rights to your first-born child and/or pet and probably your soul, too, – I’m not 100% sure.). Or you can email them to me and I’ll post them for you. I’ll start:
• Arden’s favorite name right now is Augusta and her favorite color is white- examples of her unusual sense of cool.
• Madeleine’s goal lately is to read all the Newbery Award books – I love that she is a reader.
• Dan makes the most delicious French press coffee every morning with chicory – he keeps me warm and makes my day worth waking up for – literally and figuratively.
• I have to credit Dan, too, for suggesting that I start this blog in the first place.
Trailing you from Spanish @ PC every Monday...I'm still following you here. Love you.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd how refreshed I feel, after spending much of Sunday cleaning out my personal closet. Adding a large trash bag full of clothes to the "donation" pile, putting the majority of two boxes full of grad school notes and readings into recycling, and collecting a large box of books to take to Powell's and sell is, well, surprisingly rejuvenating.
ReplyDeleteI spent today playing chase and "MAX train" (a "game Catcher invented), reading Holiday books, watching Barca destroy RMA in El Clásico, doing laundry, listening to Catcher sing songs as he "wrote" them, playing crazy eights and watching Frog and Toad with Catch. That seems to me to be a pretty good day, if I do say so myself.
Cheers!
For being able to spend a little quality time with my kids the weekend after Thanksgiving getting the Christmas decorations out of the attic and putting the lights on the house...our own family tradition.
ReplyDeletefrom Judy:
ReplyDeleteTwo things this week in response to your piece what you're thankful for:
On Tuesday we visited the SCW thrift store, where we were shopping at the same time as a woman who could hardly walk around, and that only very slowly. She was beautifully coifed and made up, and from talking with her it was obvious she has all her mental marbles. Her feet were in black surgical type boots and her legs were thickly wrapped in ace bandages. The knuckles on her hands are large, making her hands quite misshapen. (Probably rheumatoid arthritis.) It happened that we were checking out right behind her. Everything was half price this week, and she had bought about $85 worth of clothes, a lot of them very nice embroidered denim, six bags worth. We didn't have very much to buy, so I offered to carry her purchases out to her friend's car, and she followed slowly. She told me she and her friend had been at an estate sale in early October. She was looking at items on a table while 2 women behind her were taking apart a bed frame. Something slipped and she was hit in the leg by a heavy piece of metal. She is just this week able to get out of her house, and she told me she was exhausted by this trip. I think these trips are some of the few things she can still take pleasure in.
I am grateful for my health and my ability to WALK FAST whenever I want to. I admire that woman for keeping her positive attitude in spite of the difficulties life has handed her. I hope I see her again.
The weather today was just what winter weather should be. We had lunch on the screen porch, the cats lounged on the chairs in the sun, and Mike got the rest of the Christmas lights up. We are grateful for the chance to enjoy this place at this time of our lives.