Thanksgiving and Gratitude in Everyday Life

Thanksgiving has come and gone once again and I'm grateful to have enjoyed the experience. Someone commented on how truly special this holiday is. "It's like Christmas but without all the stress and external trappings of gift buying". Makes a lot of sense huh?  I suppose we could all make an effort to better manage our own expectations for Christmas by giving ourselves permission to shift even in a small way to less shopping, wrapping and piling under the tree. Let's consider breaking free from corporate marketing and the pressure of a throw away society. Just a thought. Enough of that for now though.

I've delighted in the progress my medical mind shift has been making. Needless to say it's very helpful to go for a follow up appointment to review my health status. The stiff and achey joints are an aftershock of chemo which hopefully will dwindle over time. Ok, check. Provided them a copy of bloodwork results from my family doc. Ok, no concerns, check. Increased fatigue is likely restorative as body has a chance now to start healing from five months of toxic assault. Ok, check. Vital signs all normal and no ongoing or severe pains.  Ok, check.  Conclusion being next follow up appointment in six months!  I said pardon?  Really? Yup, just listen to your body and react appropriately.  Live every day in a healthy way until something happens.  Wow, do I have lots to be thankful for. After all isn't living every day in a healthy way something we all try to do?

Back to Thanksgiving weekend for a moment considering it was Mike's second weekend of retirement. If you read my last post you know that we got to have three grandkids for four days. Since we were invited to Mike's brother's for Sunday, we decided to have a small family dinner on Saturday. While I contemplated cooking a turkey, the hose to the kitchen faucet burst at the beginning of the week. Not to be found locally, Mike called the company to have a replacement shipped with no guarantee it would arrive by the weekend. My rational self reviewed the situation deciding it may be unreasonable to try to put on a full turkey dinner with no water in the kitchen. Thank goodness rationale thought overrode emotion!  As it turned out, we had Nathalie home, Matt and Ella, Brooke, Mike and their three kids, Cathy, mother of Brooke, Nathalie and Gabe, Gabe's girlfriend Maddie, and of course, our standard fixture, Hank from across the street!  It adds up to nine adults and four kids. Had I been equipped with my former level of energy, the crowd would likely have been even greater. This goes back to a feeling I've had for many years, of wanting to gather people around at Thanksgiving, especially those without family or close friends to share a meal. Most of us attended mass on Saturday before dinner. During that time I reflected on the fact that if Mike and I hadn't connected, it might well have been 3-4 of us rather than an entire pew at the church. It left me with a deep sense of gratitude.

On Thursday of this week I attended morning mass which is a way I like to start my day.
That, in addition to practicing asking the Holy Spirit to direct my day, and even asking for surprises along the way. Let me share an example. The woman who usually sits in front of me,  turned to me on returning to her seat from reviewing the reading said she had something to tell me. Since I am open and truly believe such things, I was all ears. Whatever the message, it was coming through this woman from on high. "You have no idea how many souls you are saving" she said, "I know you get discouraged sometimes, but you have no idea how many souls you are saving so be content with where you are."  Imagine my sense of wonder at such a remark. More even than that, a wonderful sense of peace and calm came over me. It was like a gentle nudge, pushing aside my recent feelings of not being able to do much of late while watching the likes of someone like Gord Downie making every single moment count in helping and reaching out to raise awareness of the plight of our indigenous people. It's crazy, this notion of feeling like we have to do something great to be counted in the grand scheme of things, when life is really about the every day, mundane things. It's about doing our best in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. That message, too, has been surfacing a lot lately.

In closing, I'd like to share our experience this week of seeing Burton Cummings at a theatre downtown that doesn't have a bad seat in the house. It was just him and his piano, no backup band, and he set the stage for what turned out to be a most intimate and entertaining show.  This iconic Canadian showman, oozing talent out of his fingers and voice, humble and grateful beyond measure, at 68 years old exceeded any and all expectations. On that note, I had commented after the show that I came with no expectations, didn't wonder if he would play/sing this song or that one, or even what song might be performed in the encore. No, in fact, it didn't matter - he did it all. I think what impressed me most was how he expressed his nervousness at the beginning of the event.  The guy in front of us on stage was simply Burton Cummings, the man, alone with his piano, God given talent for writing music, lyrics and voice, combined with plenty of hard work and practice. He ended with sharing how he never, ever, takes anything for granted, thanking us all for supporting him through the years. I think those are sage comments that each of us can ponder for a while.

I'm tapping out this post as we enjoy the fall colours on our way to Pembroke to attend their hospital fundraising gala with Kirk and Lynda, members of our extended family you may have met along the way in our adventures in prayer and medicine.

Take care and thank you for your continued prayers and good wishes. I don't want to take any of that for granted. God Bless,

Hugs,
Liz

dobbsjones@gmail.com
"Prayers wrapped in faith and sent with love are the greatest gifts we can receive". 

p.s. Sorry for any typos or grammatical errors as this post is being tapped out on my IPad in the truck and editing seems to be technologically eluding me :-)