I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.  
      -------Henry David Thoreau

This is an excerpt from November 2020, when we celebrated away from the familiar family tables, as did those who celebrated the first Thanksgiving.  

First Moments. (From November 2020)

I wonder about the first moments of gratitude that gave way to the first Thanksgiving feast, those pin-points of time, when emotion fired up the heart shooting high to the heavens. And then celebration became the order of the day.

Maybe it was a woman explaining to her child about thankfulness. And maybe it was a child with gratitude reflected in her eyes that sparked the early settlers to gather together.  It would not be the first time a child changed the world.

They endured so much. Hunger. Disease. Distance from the homeland.

They arrived weakened from the stormy Atlantic crossing. Their strange new world greeted them with a fierce winter that took even more lives. But winter thawed into spring and they adapted. Squanto, an English speaking Wampanoag man came to live with the colonists. Together they worked side by side, planting corn and other native plants that evolved into a autumn harvest worthy of celebration. It was a three day feast. 

But it began in a moment of gratitude, of thankfulness and it became a moment for the ages.

Remembering Thanksgiving 2020, 
 
Many of us distanced last year. Like the pilgrims, we were facing issues of survival.
 
A gathering took place without me. But I had my moment. A beautiful moment. The phone rang and I heard a choruses of love.  

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence. 

How sweet to think of! My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.
         ------Henry David Thoreau

See the full post:

A Perpetual Thanksgiving

Gratitude as Attire: Wear it everywhere

Gratitude as Attire: Wear it everywhere.

To God My Creator:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.