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Gratitude is for family together
(by Barbara Christian - November 25, 2009)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Gratitude is for family together
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Did you survive the annual turkey-induced coma and all those football games? Good. We did too. Thanks for asking.
But beyond the food and football, what were you thankful for this year? Family? Always. Good health? Of course. A job? Definitely. But what about the small things that make life a daily affirmation. Can you think back to the small things?
In "Sound of Music," Maria and her kids rejoiced in cream-colored ponies, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. What is it that transports you to that feeling of well-being?
Was it that snowstorm last winter? The one that forced you inside to focus on something other than having to be someplace other than home? Did you read that book you bought but never had time for? Time is a mitzvah. A blessing.
For our money, the small moments of thanks go back to family, our tribe. We are connected by a genetic or adoptive bond that may stretch, bend, suffer neglect and distance but which never breaks. Family is forever.
A Thanksgiving dinner with everyone around the table has become a rare thing for families. When it happens in ours, it is so unusual that son, Peter, offers the toast, and it's always the same: "Thank you, family, and especially those who made a special effort to be here and to be together."
He doesn't mean it that way, but, in truth, it's Peter and wife, Patty, who give meaning to the words "special effort." They travel across much of North America to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family, and they do it with three boys under 10.
On these occasions, someone will invariably asks everyone at the table what they are thankful for.
This year, for us, the list is long. It's gratitude for the near misses and the things that could have happened but which did not. We give thanks for:
Peter, who survived a field-landing mishap in the small plane he flies for his work. The tail-over-propeller tumble injured his shoulder and totaled the plane, but the worst thing did not happen.
Our 10-year-old granddaughter, Ruthie, who had surgery to remove a benign tumor in her right inner ear. While she will not have hearing on that side again, we are thankful for her resilience and happy spirit.
You may remember our other granddaughter, Evie, the subject of last year's Christmas column. This 3-year-old tornado has such a will to be her own and independent person that it proved near catastrophic.
This year, we are grateful no harm came to Evie, who, while her parents were not looking, opened the door of their first-floor apartment and took a stroll down a busy New York City street. We give thanks her parents caught up with her before. We still shudder thinking about what might have been.
These are what we give thanks for this year, and they force us to wonder what next year's list for gratitude will be. We hope it will be one of those rare years when our family is together again. We can hardly wait.
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