Thanksgiving Greetings

Jump to Comments

I’m watching the girls watch Santa arrive at the Macy’s parade. All my side dishes are in the fridge, my turkey is in the oven, my friends are coming in a few hours, and my husband is downstairs laughing with his old college friend.

I am thankful for everything today. My most grateful moment of every day is getting in bed, huddling under the covers, and realizing that I am so lucky to live in a time and place with a house, a comfy mattress, nice sheets, and tons of pillows. Seriously — I think this every night as a drift off to sleep.

Some assorted things to be thankful for: Our friends in India are OK, the Obama girls and puppy moving to the White House, a table that can seat 11, a brand new All-Clad giant roasting pan, modern medicine, living parents, beautiful and fun children making music and writing plays, a fun and always interesting husband, discovering homeschooling, coffee . . . Once the list starts, there’s no end.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy, or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys too: be not content with them as joys. They too conceal diviner gifts.

And so, at this time, I greet you.
Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee.

–Fra Giovanni, A.D. 1513

4 Comments

Filed under Family Fun, Our Domestic Church, Remedial Domesticity