A DIFFERENT THANKSGIVING THIS YEAR
This year I’m thinking a bit differently. While giving thanks for the abundance in my life, I want to send some of the love I receive to the Mid-East. This love goes to the people who are lacking in enough love that they are creating havoc and sorrow among those who have been comfortable in the love that surrounds them.
Love seems to be something many of us take for granted. We accept our families’ and friends’ hugs and affection almost without thinking about it; especially on Thanksgiving Day when aunts, uncles, and cousins come to re-unite. Brothers and sisters will share the same table laden with their favorite foods. We expect the camaraderie, the flow of stories and jokes that bind us together.
Memories of past Thanksgiving Day celebrations are varied and many. Some of the painful ones, when everything seemed to go wrong, make for the best stories now. As the stories get told and re-told, they may alter a bit, get a bit exaggerated, but the core remains. Laughter abounds regardless.
This year, with so much fear about personal safety and holiday traveling, I want to send love out to those who cause the fear. Maybe if they receive enough love, compassion, and understanding of a culture so different from ours in the western world, that they will re-think what they are doing, learn to love and live good lives.
Hopefully, many others will join me and create a huge cloud of love and peace to send out to the troubled areas of our world.