thanksgiving celebration

On Being Thankful

/ inkspeare

Thankful Squirrel – Photo by M.A.D.

As I sit here, I think about the upcoming Thanksgiving Day and what this holiday means. For some, it is an opportunity to share a big meal with family and friends. For other people, a “turkey day” of fun, while others look at it as the official start of the Holiday Season. For many, it is all of the above and a day for reflection, for counting and recounting all the blessings that the Lord has given and be grateful to Him for those. For other people, the day comes and goes just like another ordinary day, due to different circumstances.

There is so much to be thankful for, from the moment one opens the eyes to receive another day, another opportunity unique to each person to do better than the day before. No one is perfect, but to each one of us another day is given to do as we may, as we should, and ultimately as we want, with it the gift of free will, another precious gift to be grateful for.

On Thanksgiving Day, here in the USA, people will be eating and celebrating with family and friends, knowing or unknowingly aware of the deeper meaning and significance of this day. As many seconds the day has, each second is a reason to be thankful, but knowing that the seconds before then counted as well, and hoping that the seconds after will be unnumbered and plenty, because these can never be unlimited. Each second of life, a second of gratitude. Tomorrow comes and goes, and what remains are memories of that day, and when the memories fade over time, a grateful heart lives on forever.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all who celebrate the day, and many blessings to all of you.

Maria Antonia Diaz

The Turkey That Keeps On Giving

/ inkspeare

Thanksgiving day was not the same this year. I decided to cook a turkey just for the two of us, and a small traditional thanksgiving meal. I shared the meal with my neighbor, and saved a few leftovers for today, and to use in future cooking. One thing that I enjoy doing with the rest of the picked turkey (the parts that I will not use) is to place the entire pan outside for any critters to enjoy – cats, meat-eating birds and many other critters. Usually, by the next day, the pan is licked clean and the carcass gone or spread out in a few bones without any meat left. Then, we place it into a garbage bag to be disposed.

Today, I was able to capture a few vultures and crows joining in to enjoy the rest of the turkey. I took the pictures silently, from inside, through the window with a screen, so I would not scare them, hence why they are not perfect and a bit hazy, but I will share them anyhow.

This pan is empty now; all turkey juice gone as well as the turkey.
Not much left of that turkey.
Crows and Vulture join in.
It seems satisfied enough.
This one is standing on my neighbor’s roof. From a distance, and especially when they are all together, they look the same, but they are not. Look at the face and feathers, and the color of the legs and beak as well.

It is nice to know that all the turkey was used, and the outdoor critters enjoyed it as well.

Every Little Blessing

/ inkspeare

For us who celebrate Thanksgiving day, when we think of this day, most likely, a turkey will pop up in our minds. The holiday and the turkey that is traditionally served as a meal have become one and the same. Turkey or not, Thanksgiving symbolizes a time to pause and reflect on all the blessings we have received during the year, and give thanks. We live at such a hurried pace that we forget to thank the Lord for everything that we have been blessed with, and when we really think about it, we have plenty to be grateful for. Even the tiniest of blessings in our lives counts. Just to be able to write this post is a blessing for me. Just think of all that it encompasses – I am able to write because I had the blessing of an education in a public system, and later on a college education, which made possible becoming able to read/write and later on, developing my interests (things that we take for granted but for many others are not possible). I am able to write this post because I have been blessed with health – mentally and physically. An internet connection, and a PC makes this possible too, but for it to happen these had to be invented at one point. All of it, small blessings that are many times, taken for granted. When I think of all the other little blessings that make this possible, it brings to mind a truckload of other blessings, and so on.

There is so much to be thankful for, from the moment we open our eyes to receive another day until the moment we go to sleep and rest. One blessing is preceded by an infinite amount of other blessings that made it possible, and if we go back in time/history, an entire humanity has been blessed and connected by tiny blessings. Right now, I am writing this post from the USA, and later on, you might be reading it on another part of the world via your PC, phone, or other device, but it is all interconnected and it all comes from the same source of blessings. Isn’t it a wonderful thing?

Any day is a good day to give thanks for the infinite blessings we enjoy, and to realize that every little blessing counts. Happy Thanks Giving!