Thanksgiving 2015

It has been a long and painful month of my father and I suffering from an upper respiratory virus. While still under its effects, there are things to be grateful for.

Take today for instance. Thanksgiving dinner with friends featuring great food, good company, and better conversation made for a memorable afternoon. Not even badly damaging a tire on the way back was able to take away any of the good spirit engendered.

Having a roof over my head along with heat during cold rain turning to ice is not to be sneezed at too. On a more trivial note, watching Mystery Science Theater 3000's Turkey Day marathon featuring silly satire is something I appreciate. Only in a free country can something like it be produced.

That is something not so trivial, on second thought.

Gratitude is an amazing thing for it brings to attention things we take for granted. It is far too easy to lose that which we take for granted, so feeling grateful can inoculate us against that if we  but pay attention.

To all my fellow Americans I wish you a happy Thanksgiving!

Paint it Black Friday

Normally I like to post something about being thankful around Thanksgiving, however I’m in no mood to do so this year. It has been the kind of year where every blessing has revealed a Faustian twist behind it souring things considerably. Suffice it to say that actively working on being grateful has been a task and as of this week I’m completely depleted of the emotion.

A large part of my foul mood has to do with having been ill for several weeks with an upper respiratory bug that only now is clearing up. Much more aggravating is continued problems for Dad involving a leaking feeding tube. It was replaced on short notice Monday and now is worse as of yesterday. So he isn’t able to feed at all at the moment while we wait for a return call from the department involved.

Well, it looks like we have to go in, no surprise. I’m suspecting an infection thanks to discharge I just saw. Going to be another long day if we can get out in the first place. Tractor path is going to get used, methinks.

Thanksgiving 2013

To all my fellow Americans reading the blog, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

It may be a world of entertainment and mass distraction for those of us in the first world, but I’m far too aware of those who live in conditions much closer to that which the pilgrims faced in the desperate early years of the new world colonization efforts. Having food to eat, a roof over one’s head, and a warm bed are simple things that we all should be grateful for. It’s all too easy to lose perspective when trying to keep up with whatever expensive toy a neighbor or acquaintance has gotten themselves.

It is going to be a quiet Thanksgiving here at the Boonedocks, devoid of a turkey and the traditional trimmings. In fact, my father and I aren’t sure what we’re going to eat having made no preparations. Getting older and with little family living far away, the holiday simply doesn’t have the allure it once did. Substance matters and without it, the trimmings are pretty boring.

While I’m thankful for what I have, I’m even more so that I’m not going Black Friday shopping. It’s my idea of one of the nastier circles of Hell imagined by Dante.

Happy Turkey Day!

Here in the States, it is the holiday of Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Festivities mean I won’t be online, so I’m wishing everyone a safe and thankful holiday a little early.

A few things that I am grateful for this year:

1. Completing my fourth straight workout on the home gym and finally getting back to where I was before the bout of Lyme Disease.
2. Being able to afford upgrading my PC so that it will run for a few more years. Intel Q9450 for the win!
3. Qualifying for my carry permit.
4. Finding and acquiring every Japanese made Godzilla movie. A task much harder than you would think!
5. Successfully repairing my beat up hiking shoes to give me more miles of treading.
6. Bad movies to watch on bad days.
7. Finding a permanent diet change that has helped my digestive tract to behave.
8. Fractale and C-Control actually put out on Blu-ray here in the U.S.A. Thank you, Funimation!
9. Discovering I am not the weakest link when online gaming with younger friends.
10. Having the Subaru back in action again.
11. The help of friends to get to church and providing a place to stay overnight for those long winter months without the car.
12. Having random strangers stop and actually read the posts on the blog. It may be a small amount of traffic, but it is nice to finally give back to the Web after years of reading others’ contributions.
13. Turkeys for being so edible.
14. The patience of God for putting up with me.
15. The number fifteen, so I can conclude this list in units of five.

So what is on your gratitude list this year?

Gratitude

Being more grateful for things is something I am always working on and I find myself needing to more this Thanksgiving.  For some reason, ready reasons to be thankful are fleeing me at the moment.

One thing I need to do is stop comparing my life to that of others around me. It will come up short 99% of the time as far as achievements go, so letting go of that benchmark would help a great deal. But that is easier said than done, so it may be a few more years before that happens.

Perhaps I should write some things out and hope to actually feel them a little more tomorrow.

Some things to be grateful for, in random order:

• Food
• Shelter
• Heat
• Electricity
• Indoor plumbing
• The Atonement made by Jesus Christ
• Friends
• Family
• Music
• Art
• Sunlight
• Books
• The Internet
• Cats (depending on patience levels)
• B Movies (Perfect for sick days)
• Gunpowder
• Kind words (even if they embarrass)

Well, I got farther than I thought I would, given the headache I’ve had most of the day. It is a start, at least.

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and remembers what the holiday commemorates. From articles in the papers, a lot of people are not feeling the spirit due to economic problems. The pilgrims would look at what most of us have and think us wealthy beyond belief. So please, find some things to give thanks for!

A Time to Give Thanks

It is that time of year again, the time of turkeys, cranberry sauce, and relatives gathering together.  In our case, two out of three apply – we have turkey and cranberry sauce.  But what is this holiday called Thanksgiving is really about?

It helps to flash back to those struggling Puritan settlers; you know them, the guys with with the funny black hats and muskets that look like some guy should be playing a jazz tune through. Colonizing untamed lands was not easy and starvation was a constant threat.  Early attempts at communal farming were a failure and the colonists were fortunate to be given charity by a local tribe of American Indians.  Not starving to death was something to be very grateful for and so was the ability to practice their religion without government interference or persecution.

Flash forward to today and compare our lives to their hard scrabble existence.  Even though times are tough by modern standards there is much to be grateful for.  We are yet free and live in a land of abundance. While times are tough at the Boonedocks right now and won’t be getting any better in the foreseeable future, I am thankful that I have a roof over my head, food to eat, heat to keep me warm, and electricity to power the PC I’m typing this on.  There are people who don’t have those things or are facing horrendous trials in their lives.

My prayer for this Thanksgiving:

I thank Thee, oh Father, for the blessings I enjoy. May those shattered families and individuals suffering today know comfort and healing, find their strengths that they have lost or not discovered, and know that redemption can be found by all of God’s children.  May they know hope and peace during these hard times and find inspiration from those who have gone before them. Please help them to feel Thy love for them and remind them that they have the divine within them.  Please help those of us who are blessed be better servants to those in need. In the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Turkey Induced Thinking

Here it is, the day after Thanksgiving and I'm suffering turkey induced thoughts. They tend to be slow and ponderous thanks to the tryptophan - which is why playing Scrabble right after eating yesterday wasn't the brightest move on my part. I console myself with the fact I finished second, a mere 10 points behind. Not bad since it had been 30 years since I last played it. Well, not good since I only got 99 points and got shut out of every triple word play I had set up. Ah well.

It has been a long and hard year, so I had to work at counting my blessings, which all involve people I know. Or more accurately, it is the blessings of knowing them. I was told by someone that there are no good people, everyone is evil. That's haunted me, because I remember when I thought that way in my youth. It is a corrosive form of cynicism that eats at one's very soul and seeing that in someone else after getting away from that trap was sobering. There are a lot of good people out there and since they usually aren't trouble makers, it takes an effort to find them. Too many run in cynical and hip crowds, desperately searching for something to fill the hollow void in their lives. They accumulate material goods, money, fame, and party like they'll die if they stop moving. I have yet to see any good come from that lifestyle, only bitterness and resentment. I am very grateful that I learned not to be so bitter. I'm also grateful for my faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father (you too, Holy Ghost), especially for the path that set me on, for it led me to most of the good people I know.

Look for the positive, there are silver, even platinum linings to many a cloud. It is how you deal with the negatives, with the tests and trials that determines how happy you will be. It certainly makes life easier to cope with.