We take a day and we claim it for Thanksgiving.

Sometime this lovely dream gets tangles up with dysfunctional families, traffic jams and Black Friday shopping melees.

I’m taking a deep breath, getting centered and laying claim to the original intent.

Still, I’m throwing out the Pilgrims and looking at my life

So grateful for the breath that fuels each day

Eyes that see, ears that hear,

Muscles and joints that take me on daily travels

Even to a desk where back and fingers get the workout I rather have with legs and arms rhythmically balanced on a leisurely run

Starting the day with a walk and two silly Goldens

Geese are taking off for winter holidays,

Strong wings beating softly above my head

See the redwood trios marking my neighborhood, and

Stubborn, beautiful color still hanging in the trees

Cyclamen and pansies and mums brighten yards,

Don’t they know it’s winter? Ah, yes, but this is California

Passing houses mostly filled with strangers to me.

Lifting up the people I know who struggle with sadness,

who’ve lost their mates, who fight illness, who are tired and sore and?

wondering how life came to this , holding no thoughts today will be different?

Praying for rays of hope to lighten paths, for manna to sustain us all?

Praying for forgiveness to lighten our daily loads

Opening my eyes, taking in shades of green,

Finding the shoreline of the winter receding lake

Feeling the chill, hearing the whisper to seize this day

Capturing birdsong I don’t recognize but appreciate

Sharing neighborly words, some are even sincere

I stop.

Breathe.

Close my eyes…thank you

Open my eyes… thank you

Back home, I sip a hot coffee, happy for half-and-half and half-guilty pleasures

Pet the cat who can never be warm enough in her old, bony body.

Move my foot, accommodating the heavy head of a sleeping dog who can never be close enough,

Start the daily puzzle, choose tunes, let inspiration bloom

I try not to weep in the face of grace

God who is faithful in ways I cannot imagine but hold to be true

Knowing any moment, much of life can blow up right in my face.

Remembering love is Spirit-driven, keep the lines open, don’t let life pass by

My husband, my children, my friends, my pets, my work,

nature so big and so small

Love surrounds me, sweeps me up and carries me home

I send love to family so far away – heart-embedded, heart-imprinted forever

I give thanks for music and song and harmonies

Good will and good faith, surely good food!

Giving thanks for life.

Life may not be easy in any given moment.

Life may not feel good no matter how good you have it.

Yet life has easy moments chock-filled with goodness.

Today is what I have, what we all have.

Thanksgiving. Oh yes. Giving thanks.