dual personalities

Tag: thanksgiving

November 26, 2014

Come, ye thankful people, come

by chuckofish

Raise the song of harvest home!

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I am working a half day today. Then I will get ready for tomorrow’s feast.

I have already started to set the table.

IMGP1131I like to mix up my china, using some of my own fine china pattern (Autumn) and some of my mother’s pattern (Nydia)–both Lenox. And I love this vintage Vera tablecloth! So autumnal.

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And what would a holiday table be without these guys?  Of course.

Have a good day and don’t work too hard.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

5 Comments
November 4, 2014

An attitude of gratitude

by chuckofish

givethanks

It being November again (!) it seems liked a good time to talk about thankfulness. “Nothing,” says Billy Graham “turns us into bitter, selfish, dissatisfied people more quickly than an ungrateful heart. And nothing will do more to restore contentment and the joy of our salvation than a true spirit of thankfulness.”

I have been re-reading Jan Karon’s seventh Mitford book In This Mountain and this is one of her main themes. Toward the end of the book, Father Tim preaches on this very subject (and I Thessalonians 5:18).

I admit to you that although I often thank God for my blessings, even the smallest, I haven’t thanked Him for my afflictions.

I know the fifth chapter of First Thessalonians pretty well, yet it just hadn’t occurred to me to actually take Him up on this notion. I’ve been too busy begging Him to lead me out of the valley and onto the mountaintop. After all, I have work to do, I have things to accomplish…alas, I am the White Rabbit everlastingly running down the hole like the rest of the common horde.

I want to tell you that I started thanking Him last night–this morning at two o’clock, to be precise–for something that grieves me deeply. And I’m committed to continue thanking Him in this hard thing, no matter how desperate it might become, and I’m going to begin looking for good in it. Whether God caused it or permitted it, we can rest assured–there is great good in it.

So no matter what happens to us, no matter how difficult our situation or how much our friends disappoint us, no matter how alone we feel–we must never forget that God is with us. No matter what happens, God has promised that He will be with us in whatever tribulation or trial that comes. God will not waste this experience. He doesn’t waste anything. And so we are thankful for everything. We try to be anyway.

Nobody said it would be easy, right?

 

4 Comments
December 3, 2013

“…Do you think she’s talented, deeply and importantly talented?”

by chuckofish

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Daughter #2 breezed into town last Tuesday and we had a wonderful time together. We shopped “small” in Kirkwood. We tried a trendy new restaurant in a converted gas station in a hipster south STL neighborhood. The food was amazing.

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We caught up with her old buddy who came over for dinner. (Daughter #2 cooked.)

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Edwina works for Anheuser-Busch–have Bud will travel.

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We over-ate at the boy’s house with his in-laws on Thanksgiving and then watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles together. This picture really says it all.

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We watched one of our favorite movies together. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Perfect.

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And then it was time for her to return to Maryland.

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Will I ever learn to take these farewells in stride? I doubt it.

8 Comments
November 29, 2013

Del Griffith! How the hell are ya?

by chuckofish

thanksgiving

Hope y’all had as nice a Thanksgiving as we did. Good food, good company and, as usual, we ended the day with these guys:

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3 Comments
November 28, 2013

Happy birthday, Buddy

by chuckofish

wheeler

The boy turns 27 today!

The above photo is one of my favorite pictures of the boy. He is about four. Funnily enough, it was taken by one of his Sunday School teachers. He is in the act of throwing an accurately decorated paper (jet) plane. Hmmm.

He hasn’t changed much really.

He shares a birthday with John Bunyan (1628), William Blake (1827) and Randy Newman (1943). Two of his illustrious ancestors died on this day: William Whipple, signer of the American Declaration of Independence, and the boy’s great-great-great grandfather John S. Hough.

The Episcopal Church celebrates this day as a feast day in honor of King Kamehameha and Queen Emma of Hawaii, who were good Episcopalians.

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So hats off to the boy! We are looking forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with him and his lovely wife. Once again I will provide the cheesey potato casserole. And, of course, birthday presents for the birthday boy!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

5 Comments
November 27, 2013

Let’s get this party started

by chuckofish

Daughter #2 arrived home yesterday safe and sound.

We stopped on the way home from the airport, as is our tradition, for margaritas.

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Then we went home, unpacked our pajama pants and got comfortable

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and watched our favorite misfit Christmas special.

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER

Let the good times roll!

2 Comments
November 26, 2013

Ponder anew: counting our blessings

by chuckofish

prayer-stained-glass-religion

“Gratitude goes beyond the ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

So November is almost over. Advent starts this Sunday! Have I been successful in my effort to be more consciously thankful? I think so.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things.”

This is so true. And, hey, what we may think of as small things are probably the Big Things. There are many, many things to be grateful for, but these are the main five in my book.

1. Home and family–so easy to take for granted–but my ordinary life is quite wonderful.

2. A church home: Isn’t it wonderful (to borrow a phrase) to have some place to go “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”?

3. Work: I am personally so grateful to have a job that I actually like and where I feel I am making a small difference.

4. Health–One of those things that I don’t really appreciate until I am sick or my knee hurts–so it takes some effort to think, hey, I feel pretty good today!

5. An inquiring mind: It’s so important to exercise this gift every day along with that not-so-athletic body! And there is also this:

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

So in these waning days of November as we ready ourselves for the festive national holiday of Thanksgiving, let us actually give thanks!

2 Comments
November 6, 2013

Rest and be thankful

by chuckofish

restand be thankful

XIII. “REST AND BE THANKFUL!”
AT THE HEAD OF GLENCROE

Doubling and doubling with laborious walk,
Who, that has gained at length the wished-for Height,
This brief this simple wayside Call can slight,
And rests not thankful? Whether cheered by talk
With some loved friend, or by the unseen hawk
Whistling to clouds and sky-born streams that shine,
At the sun’s outbreak, as with light divine,
Ere they descend to nourish root and stalk
Of valley flowers. Nor, while the limbs repose,
Will we forget that, as the fowl can keep
Absolute stillness, poised aloft in air,
And fishes front, unmoved, the torrent’s sweep,–
So may the Soul, through powers that Faith bestows,
Win rest, and ease, and peace, with bliss that Angels share.

–Composed by William Wordsworth during a tour in Scotland and on the English border in the autumn of 1831

“Rest and be thankful” are the words inscribed on a stone near the junction of the A83 and the B828, placed there by soldiers who built the original military road in 1753, now referred to as the Drovers’ road. The original stone fell into ruin and was replaced by a commemorative stone at the same site.

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The section is so named as the climb out of Glen Croe is so long and steep at the end that it was traditional for travellers to rest at the top, and be thankful for having reached the highest point. The current road no longer keeps to the floor of Glen Croe but steadily climbs across the southern slopes of The Cobbler, on the north side of the Glen, to the highest point of the pass. The westward descent to Loch Fyne is through Glen Kinglas, and from here the A815, the main road to Dunoon and the Cowal peninsula, branches off to the south.*

I have not been to this particular corner of Scotland, but I wish I had! Wow. And isn’t it great that they erected a stone inviting people to “rest and be thankful”?

Anyway, I thought this fit in nicely with my effort to be thankful this month–don’t you agree?

*Information and photos via Wikipedia

4 Comments
November 2, 2013

The Basics

by chuckofish

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m going to list five things for which I’m grateful. But since it’s early in the month, let’s start with the most basic, mundane stuff and work up to the most important closer to the holiday.

1. Elastic waists, stretchy material, and the color black. Let’s face it. Some of us 50-somethings have not aged as gracefully as others. I’m the type with lumps and bumps that require camouflage.  So I’m grateful to J. Jill for styles I can wear comfortably, but still look reasonably tidy in. And black is definitely my favorite color.

picture from jjill.com

picture from jjill.com

Okay. Now picture her a foot shorter, twice as wide, and thirty years older, and presto, c’est moi! Yes, I’m grateful (if dumpy).

2. I’m also grateful for this little product: Eucerin redness relief soothing nightcream.eucerinI use it morning and evening. It’s not expensive and it works amazingly well to even out skin tone and help with those pesky wrinkles. I love the stuff.

3. Green Mountain Coffee. It gets me through those morning classes when I’m feeling uninspired. If only my students drank it too!

green_mountain_coffee_organicIt’s roasted in Vermont — what more do I need to say? Yum.

4.  Supermarket flowers. Every now and then I buy myself flowers. I especially like these (can’t remember the name), though I’ve never had this color.

supermarket flowers

They last for weeks if you use the (nasty) chemical preservative they come with. In November, which is notoriously cold and rainy, I am especially grateful for flowers.

5. Let’s not forget the vacuum cleaner. I know, it’s not exciting, but I thoroughly appreciate my warhorse. It takes a lot of use and abuse and keeps on going. Since you are all very well acquainted with vacuums, I’ll spare you a picture. However, mine is coming to the end of its natural life and I am thinking about getting a new one. I would appreciate recommendations!

So that’s my list of some of the little things that make my days better.  No deep, spiritual connections here, but it’s a start,  What are your basics?

*Obviously, I’m not getting anything for plugging the products listed above. I just like them!

7 Comments
November 26, 2012

Happy birthday, Marilynne Robinson

by chuckofish

“…I’ve developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books. This is not a new insight, but the truth of it is something you have to experience to fully grasp.

Thank God for them all, of course, and for that strange interval, which was most of my life, when I read out of loneliness, and when bad company was much better than no company. You can love a bad book for its haplessness or pomposity or gall, if you have that starveling appetite for things human, which I devoutly hope you never will have. ‘The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’ There are pleasures to be found where you would never look for them. That’s a bit of fatherly wisdom, but it’s also the Lord’s truth, and a thing I know from my own long experience.”

from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Have you read any Marilynne Robinson? She is so great! She has written three highly-acclaimed novels plus several books of essays. She has been writer-in-residence or visiting professor at many universities and currently teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Iowa City. If you are not acquainted with Marilynne, you are in for a treat. She is wonderful.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with lots of good food:

family:

maybe a little Christmas decorating:

The boy puts up the Christmas lights

and even a little estate saling:

Estate-rescued angel choir

And, of course, some Marilynne Robinson!

7 Comments