Thanksgiving Letters

Good Wednesday morning!

I went for a walk yesterday afternoon, and I took pics of some of my favorite things in the whole world. No, not Mikie and the kids... trees. Beautiful, colorful, autumnal trees. In the next few days there will be a rainstorm, or an incredibly blustery day, and all of the leaves will be on the ground. The trees will be bare... people will blow and bag and mulch all the leaves... the yards will be full of gray, leafless trees and very non-green lawns and fall will be over. The shortest season of the four. I know technically winter doesn't start until sometime in December, but let's face it... it's winter weeks before the actual "Official Winter Date." (I'm a little depressed if you couldn't already tell.)

I've enjoyed 47 falls. That's really not that many, is it? Compared to the 47 summers I've ENDURED, it's not many at all.

As I took the above pictures yesterday, instead of it making me happy, it made me sad. I didn't live in the moment. I looked ahead to the future when all the beauty around me would be gone, and I forgot to enjoy "my today." The only November 11, 2008 I'll ever have. I talk to the kids about it all the time, and look what I did. Shame on me! I guess living day by day is one of the hardest lessons I've ever had to learn... and I'm still learning it. I've met people who live in the moment... who are spontaneous... who will try anything once and think about what they've done later. I don't care for them very much. They make me uncomfortable.

I had a friend when I was a younger adult who would call me on a Saturday morning and say, "Let's do something. Do you want to see a movie in an hour or so?"

"Today?" I would ask incredulously. "I've kind of had my Saturday planned for five months now. I can't just go to a movie in an hour or so? What movie were you talking about?"

"Oh, I don't know. We can just pick one when we get there," she replied.

"What do you mean we'll just pick one when we get there? What if there isn't a movie showing we want to see, or what if we miss the starting time and have to wait for the next show, or what if I want to see one you've already seen twice before? You can't just show up at a movie theater and pick any ol' movie." By this time, I was having a hard time breathing.

"Well, we can do something else. Do you want to go hiking at Oak Mountain for a couple of hours?"

"What?!? Now you want to go hiking... an outside activity that needs major preparation on my part." Now my head had started hurting, too.

"Just throw on some old jeans and a pair of tennis shoes. It'll be fun," she declared.

"Have you lost your mind? Do you even know who you're talking to? Have you ever even met me?" I had broken out in severe flop sweat.

"Well, what did you have going on today?" she finally asked.

"I was going out to eat at 5:22 in the food court at the mall with some friends, and then we were going to shop for 2 hours and 12 minutes. Would you like to do that?" I asked weakly.

"That sounds fun. I love meeting new people. But would you mind if we ate at 5:30 instead of 5:22? I like round numbers."

What a weirdo!

I have a friend in the year 2008 that I call three or four months ahead of time to see if she and her family can come over to cook out... weather permitting, of course. She laughs at me, writes the date and time down and for some strange reason, they are usually available for the date we pick! This works for me.

But I know deep down, I'm missing something. TODAY! I'm missing TODAY!

I took Roxie and my niece and nephew to see Kung Fu Panda not too long ago, and there was something very wise in that little animated film. One of the characters said, "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift... that is why it is called the Present." I think I'm going to have this tattooed somewhere. Not where anyone can see it, of course. But I think I really need the daily reminder. (Or maybe I could just cross-stitch it on a pillow!)

Now for your Seasonal Tradition... 16 days ahead of time! (That's cutting it a little close for me.)

Thanksgiving Letters

My Mom started this tradition when her first three grandchildren could barely write. Every Thanksgiving, after we had eaten and played and watched football, we all gathered round and everyone read a letter they wrote telling what they were thankful for during the past year. Depending on the age of the child, sometimes they dictated it to the parent and the parent read it aloud. Sometimes with the young ones we used magazines and let them point at pictures of things they were thankful for, and we put those on a piece of paper to be shared with the group. Sometimes the letters were funny. Sometimes the letters were predictable. But sometimes the letters were incredibly poignant and timely, and they made the adults think a minute about how that particular child had seen the past year.

My Mom writes a letter each year that mentions everyone in the entire family and things they did or accomplished during the past year. The kids especially love hearing what Grandmother has written about them, and they blush or high five each other or laugh. It is a sweet, tender family moment together.

Mom now has dozens and dozens of letters she has kept chronologically in a file folder, and although the kids continue to write Thankful Letters every year (and will continue to do so for as long as possible), she wants to have the letters we have bound in a special way to preserve them. Can you imagine what a wonderful book of memories that will be?

Again, you can start this tradition any time and continue it for as long as you like. You may just want to do it for one year. That's fine. Do what works for you and your family.

NOTE: We always write our letters two or three days before Thanksgiving with a little reminder from me. Waiting until the night before Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving morning may make the letters more rushed and less thoughtful.

I have a fun date for tomorrow's post. Can you say CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP?

Have a great day and I'll talk to you Thursday.