BarkDust

For This, We are Thankful

"Welcome Morning" by Anne Sexton from The Complete Poems © Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Welcome Morning There is joy in all: in the hair I brush each morning, in the Cannon towel, newly washed, that I rub my body with each morning, in the chapel of eggs I cook each morning, in the outcry from the kettle that heats my coffee each morning, in the spoon and the chair that cry "hello there, Anne" each morning, in the godhead of the table that I set my silver, plate, cup upon each morning. All this is God, right here in my pea-green house each morning and I mean, though often forget, to give thanks, to faint down by the kitchen table in a prayer of rejoicing as the holy birds at the kitchen window peck into their marriage of seeds. So while I think of it, let me paint a thank-you on my palm for this God, this laughter of the morning, lest it go unspoken. The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard, dies young.

***** Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family far away. I tried to write a little Thanksgiving email this morning but our email is haywire so I guess the readership will have to limited to those who are geeky enough to check this blog.

It was a balmy day in the 50s. We got some coffee and walked on Mt. Tabor. I read once that Portland is the only city in the US to have an extinct volcano within city limits. It was a little overcast so we couldn't see the mountain. But there was a nice view of downtown. It was a good day to be alive.

We were invited by our new friends, Nick and Julie Chura, to spend Thanksgiving with their family. It's a bit awkward to spend a holiday with people you barely know, but they were very welcoming and we felt loved and well-fed and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

We are thankful for a warm home, a good marriage, and a pot of egg-drop soup (for Nate's cold) on the stove. And we are thankful for our friends and families who love us and care for us, though many of them are hundreds of miles away.

Thanks be to God, Deb (& Nate)

P.S. We wish cousin Yoli and Jared a happy wedding tomorrow and a marriage that will grow strong and nurture both of them and their community in Kansas.

posted by Deb @ 11/25/2004 07:49:00 PM