Thanksgiving Blessings

There was no turkey, no stuffing, no squash or pumpkin pie...No table settings for 6...no high chair joining in with a little boy full of laughter.   This year we weren't even home..this year I really, really got the meaning of Thanksgiving and giving back...and being grateful for all that we have and especially for those that I love.  I learned that food and festivities do not define what Thanksgiving really means...and it was powerful and precious.

We spent the day at Boston Children's Hospital...my little family of 7..all together, squeezed into a tiny room...We played lego's, watch the Smurf video...colored and read books...we took short walks pushing a IV pole and watching two little brothers ride in plastic trucks all around the halls, laughing together as they raced...not a drop of food or drink was allowed in that room...because Little Liam had surgery last Sunday and he is still restricted...the surgery is what prompts this post but it is not what defines it...what defines it is how thankful I am for his life, for his smile, for his healing. I am thankful for a family that doesn't ask what we can do,  but we all just show up...day after day...until we are no longer needed...I will be forever grateful to his parents for their 24 hour concern and love and sleep-overs so he is never alone. My gratitude goes beyond anything I could have imagined for the skill of those fine doctor's at Children's, one of the finest hospitals in the country...and a basket full of thanks for the nurses who care for him with such joy in their hearts for these little patients...

Life doesn't always come in a neatly tied package...it sometimes throws us a curve that we could never even imagine..but riding on the waves of those curves are lessons learned...life lessons that sometimes make you stand up and take note of the real meaning of life...the real gifts we are given and it reminds us of the goodness of so many people...strangers until you meet and whose hearts touch yours in unexpected ways...

So for the first time that I ever remember we did not sit down at the dining room table with the fancy dishes and way to much food...what we did was gather in goodness and Grace...in gratitude and love..because when it was  time for me to leave the hospital I left taking Thanksgiving with me...it was always there...in my kids, my husband, friends who prayed and doctor's and nurses who in my mind perform tiny miracles everyday...it reminds me as I entered the season of Christmas..to keep Thanksgiving in my heart and pass the goodness along...and be so Grateful for the Blessings I've been given...

I hope all my family and friends found many reasons to be grateful and thankful today...

"I am grateful for what I am and have.  My thanksgiving is perpetual.  It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite....only a sense of existence."...Henry David Thoreau...

Comments

[Denise Powers Fabian]

Cheryl - This is so powerful...and I deal with hundreds of families in the hospital who get thrown these curves. I have curves myself. The messy-ness of life keeps us humble, makes us who we are, and gives us gifts we would otherwise never receive. For a variety of circumstances, one Thanksgiving I found myself alone, no one to cook for...I had to work the next day while others left town for a long weekend. I could have whined...but instead it started the tradition of cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner for my son's group home each year. Now, every year, I cook two dinners...for his home and for ours. Would this have happened without the year of the messy Thanksgiving? I'll never know.

[Antoinette]

Dearest Cheryl:
I always leave *time* to sip a cup of tea, take a deep breath and relax into my screen as I read all your posts. I know with each one, I say, "So, when is your book coming out?" And I also reiterate what a born writer you are. That is your gift, girl, and that is why you are thrown so many curves, because you know how to accept them and turn them into positive, grateful experiences that you share with others through your heartfelt, graceful words. I hope you're keeping all these writings in hard copy somewhere . . . what treasures. Huge, gentle HUGS to all your family. I know your Christmas will be even more joy-filled . . . Be well; you're forever in my prayers.