Dearly Beloved, We Are Gathered Here Today to Celebrate

Another Day of Living

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. It’s a day with many meanings. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, “Thanksgiving is an annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.”

When I was in elementary school, nearly fifty years ago – let me check my notes because that can’t be right. Nope, the 1970’s were fifty years ago. *sigh* Back in the analog era of that day, we celebrated by making paper pilgrim hats and Native American headdresses. Nowadays, we know that’s not cool, but there was a lot of stuff that was not very cool back then.

In our current timeline, I suspect most people never spare a thought for pilgrims or the people whose land they confiscated. Instead, we watch parades and football games while we roast turkeys and celebrate gluttony. The next day, Black Friday, the celebration of gluttony continues as shoppers trample others under foot for the opportunity to buy a deeply discounted big screen TV set.

Would you be surprised if I told you that the holiday actually has more to do with the Gettysburg Address than with pilgrims? On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln declared that the nation would celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on November 26, 1863. Thereafter, the final Thursday in November became the official Thanksgiving holiday.

A portion of his proclamation reads: I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Those words seem appropriate even in the current day.

The full text can be found here: Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation of Thanksgiving | American Battlefield Trust

The speech, which was actually written by Secretary of State William Seward, declared that the last Thursday of every November thereafter would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.

Let’s take a look at the name of the holiday, “Thanksgiving.” Even without addressing a specific deity, we can all feel a grateful for good things – large and small – that happen in our lives. Perhaps we could refer to the holiday simply stopping our busy lives and living in the moment, taking time to acknowledge all of the good things in our lives and to feel a sense of gratitude.

My Gratitude List

My two incredible organ donors whose gifts have allowed me to be here for eighteen bonus years (nineteen in January.)

My amazing husband and two stepsons (not pictured). They are my family of choice and the center of my life.

My husband Jay with Bruce Wayne, and me holding Gidget McFidget.

The long and healthy lives of my two precious pups, Gidget McFidget and Bruce Wayne.

The continued health and happiness of all those I hold dear.

Smaller Gratitudes

Things for which I am grateful every day because once upon a time, they were things I did not have.

• This home, a safe refuge from the world

• Our soft bed

• A roaring fireplace on a winter’s night

• Enough food that I will never go hungry again

• A reliable car

• People who love me

Smallest Gratitudes

Things that make life so sweet

• That first cup of tea in the morning

• The spray of water from the shower that wakes me up

• My electric blanket on the couch

And last but not least –

• The washer, dryer, and dishwasher because I don’t want to wash clothes and dishes by hand!

Tell me in the comments below, what are you grateful for this year – both great and small?

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