Tees

Thanksgiving. Forgive me if I wince when someone suggests we go around and say what we are thankful for. I don’t mean to disregard the importance of gratitude. It just seems like it has become a bit of a routine, predictable rite.

Family. Friends. Health. Yes. Thank God for these, which give life.

Yet naming them sometimes seems trite. I yearn to hear and see the less obvious.

Although, I concede that naming Family, Friends, and Health take on greater depth when named by those who have lost or continue to strive to reclaim any of them.

Like Bridget, after something like 8 rounds of chemo and numerous surgeries, this light in the lives of so many still gives thanks for another day:  I lift my glass to yours, dear friend. For your health, I give thanks and pray.

I AM thankful.  And.  Lest I become complacent, I want to consider new things which make life the unpredictable festival that it is.

To this end, to see more deeply, I limit my thanks this year to a single letter: T

Twenty Topics of Thanks:

1. Trillium. In forests, surprising. White, like lights, in green shadows.
2. Tater tots: their mere mention makes me want to floss and give thanks for red-skins, roasted, with olive oil and sea salt or
3. Twice-baked potatoes
4. Turbulence: which remind me that, for the most part, flying is easy; take-offs exhilarating; the view, a sweet shift of perspective.
5. Tigerlilys: those random orange flowers that grow in unlikely places. Survivors, they. Refusing to be kept down they add color to highways and alleys– bravely growing where more delicate plants cannot grow. They remain, my favorite flower.
6. Turtles: the crystal one in which I stash my licorice candy; the sea variety, honored well in my new community;  the animated, as those brave souls in Finding Nemo who shone a kinder, gentle  light on AA; the concept—taking your home with you and moving forward, however slowly.
7. Tim McGraw. Truck yeah!
8. Triage: and the genius that developed this strategy.
9. Tears: and their ability to make room within us for tomorrows.
10. Twain (Mark), Thomas (Dylan), Thoreau (Henry David)
11. Technicolor. Technology (kinda). Tekkies (who fix technology). Trekkies (such a silly and love able lot)
12. Twos. Even when terrible. Two-year-olds rock.
13. Toms: Kose, Cruise, Hanks, and shoes.
14. Tattoos:  In particular, the well-done, well-placed, and meaningful that add to the stories we tell and the stories we love.  Can you imagine Captain Jack Sparrow, Sirius Black, or Jake and Elwood without them?  Or Quint, NOT telling of the removal of his, the USS Indianapolis, in Jaws?
15. Time: To recover. Remember. Anticipate. Cherish.
16. Tenderness. Received. Witnessed. Tried.
17. Trash cans.
    
18. Turquoise.  Imagine the ocean without it.
19. Twenties.  Now that was a decade in life.  For me.  For many.  Dare I say, for most? For my loved ones just entering them now:  best buckle up.
20. Togetherness, especially when we must wait for it.  Turkey, roasted, in a sandwich, at midnight, after the feast. Thanksgiving. Still. My favorite holiday of all.