One friend is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of her first child's birth-death. Celebrating seems like an awkward word for such a day, and yet, celebration it is. A celebration of a life needing to be remembered and a celebration of all the good life that has been lived ever since that day when it seemed certain there could be no good life left.
Another friend is hunkered down with her beloved, grieving a death in which he is too entangled, a death that came from nowhere but is now taking up all the space everywhere.
It is a day that feels a bit heavier than usual - November is full of them I guess. There is a lot of hard that happens for people I love in November and maybe it's a grace that the days are short so there is less daylight to be ruined by the ugh of it all.
Right in the middle of all this dark and bleak though, is my favourite holiday - American Thanksgiving. Right in the middle of being certain that the sun is not be seen again, right in the middle of reliving the deaths of dearly beloveds and the birthdays of newly-gones, right in the middle of all this dark is a day of thankfulness and celebration.
Thank God.
I'm going to make a turkey this year. I'm going to celebrate it, the one holiday left where gifts aren't exchanged but where every American person I know goes out of their way to be with the ones they love to share a meal and then play. Or relax. Or play then relax. But always a meal, and always with, and never gifts. I'll ignore the part where they're polluting it with Black Fridays and Target being open on Thursday. I'll ignore the ugly so that my heart can enjoy the goodness of being Thankful right in the middle of this mess.
And then the day after? the day after I'll start my advent advent. I'll bring out a few more candles. I'll hang the Advent calendar on the wall. Maybe put some green on the mantle. And we'll start easing our way to the the darkest night that brings with it The Light. And I'm going to sink into all of it with my freshly grateful heart and let the dark be so that I can see The Light.
Happy Thanksgiving.
2 comments:
Some of your best prose I think. I am going to celebrate the life of a young man tomorrow. I didn't know him well. But i do know of families like his who grieve the loss of a loved one gone too soon. I have hope in the light and the notion of being WITH. Thanks for the good prose tonight.
There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.
[url=http://jordanshoesaj.inube.com/]cheap jordans[/url]
[url=http://louisvuittonhandbags8.totalh.net/]cheap lv outlet[/url]
Post a Comment