THANKSGIVING: A CUP OF CHEER AND A TEASPOON OF SADDNESS

Yes, Thanksgiving is a festive holiday but it is also a time for honest sadness and

heart-felt grief. There is often (particularly after COVID) an empty seat, an echo of

a former laugh, a space that had been occupied by someone loved, and now,

sorely missed. I was torn about publishing this little blog, but decided that all

feelings deserved a seat at the table.

My very dear friend, who passed on (or “transitioned” as her preferred term)

would often relay the tradition of her family’s Thanksgiving table. When she was a

little girl, her grandparents presided at the head of the table. When they passed,

her parents took over the honor. Then it was her and her husband’s turn, both

now gone. She knew this was the way of life and she was always at peace with it,

but I feel for her grown children who must be missing her deeply at this first

holiday without her. For though they will assume the seat at the head of the

table, as is the family tradition, no one could truly take her place. I, too, will feel

the quiet ache of her missing…as many, many people will feel a deep longing and

loss around the Thanksgiving table.

And this gentle eternal tide, this endless flow of time, will continue to quietly shift

generations around the circle of the Thanksgiving table.

So, we give thanks for being here, thanks for having “a place at a table” (whether

it’s your own family, a cherished group of friends, at some shelter serving the

homeless), thanks for the morning sun, the laughter of children, the warmth of a

hand held lovingly in yours. And we give thanks for having shared our lives with

people now gone, if even for a little while and never long enough.

Bless you and your loved ones.