Gratitude 365

It’s become a trope that we meet difficult times with a contradicting list of thanks. Just because it feels clichéd or rote doesn’t make it bad advice.

The season of thanks giving should not be the last word on gratitude.

Finding the grateful in even the awful helps us. It’s not Pollyanna speaking when I say make it easier on yourself by looking at the plus-side.

Sometimes we have to dig deep to find anything for which to be thankful. It’s that digging deeper that helps put everything in perspective. Perspective is often what stops us from dissolving into depression.

You might find positives in inanimate objects- in nature or a favorite scarf, but you need to embrace the people who help you in the smallest of ways. Friends, neighbors, strangers can help you put a grip on that perspective.

Reaching out to express our thanks to those to whom we are grateful connects us. This closes the circle of gratitude and opens our hearts.

It’s not sappy. It’s human.

Observed today

These two illustrated vehicles both represent some good transit options. The dismantled yellow bike no doubt the better of them.

Simon is cutting hair today. Salvo’s is closed. An uneven start to finding open establishments.

I saw the first poinsettias of the season today. Wanted to shout that at the young man making the delivery but his earbudds precluded meaningful communication.

It’s warm for Thanksgiving Thursday.**

**I added the unnecessary “Thursday” in case they turn the holiday into an official long weekend. It would then come complete with its own sales day.

There are places to sit. I know I mentioned this before but Le Petit Parisien has an excellent cappuccino. You know where else the coffee’s good? My local D’Agostino. Yeah, I too was surprised.

Tis the

Wishing you the best for the holiday season.

Thanks Giving is the kick-off event.

Kick-off in more than one sense as football is such a big part of the day.

We go from here. Turkeys have been pardoned, although many more have been roasted. Pies have been baked or bought and consumed along with much more.

Sated, we are prepared to be grateful for all we have and all we share.

The day itself is a ritual of gratitude. It’s a reminder to us that we have it pretty good.

Gratitude is not a bad rite to celebrate. We could, really give it our full attention- without the distractions of turkey, pumpkin pie and football- 365 and on those leap years 366.

Worldly

Best License Plate

The World Cup has it wrong. Many of the countries competing are really not soccer people.

I know my countrymen aren’t. Is it the American pastime? Even the American pastime isn’t anymore. Baseball is great but it seems to have had its nine innings.

I am going off-topic here so back to my proposition to remedy the matchups.

If this were a Baseball World Cup, Japan and the USA might lead the matches. The World wants to participate in whatever games are afoot. We’re a playful lot.

A truly global event should give everyone an equal chance.

We could piece one together by letting the soccer-obsessed part of the earth play their soccer games. Maybe the US vs Japan in a round of baseball games would be fair. Frisbee anyone? Sailing? Golf? Fly-fishing?

The point is if a nation is dismally poor at one sport, it could partake of one where it excels.

New to me

I have learned a new word for “bewitch.” Ensorcell means to enchant, hex or charm. Thank you, AJ Willingham of CNN the Good Stuff for expanding my vocabulary with this bewitching word.

The noun for this verb is “ensorcellment” meaning enchantment or being under a spell. I notice that this whole witchy thing gets kind of awkward.

Always looking to listen and learn, although generally too lazy to do any of that the hard way. The inbox newsletter was a great eye-opener. In the same edition, AJ also shared a few of the five hundred new words in the Scrabble dictionary.

Boosting my language skills has never been more fun. Of the words represented here I found “zedonk” most intriguing and now I know what it means.

Gratitude

It’s Thanksgiving, a holiday designed for the expression of gratitude. I am happy to join in the festivities.

Thankful, I am thankful for nice days, rainbows, love, and laughter. I am grateful for both adversity and tranquility in the downs and ups of life.

No feast is necessary to celebrate. Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice turkey wing and some pecan-laden stuffing but I don’t need the poultry to underscore my appreciation.

A Pink Horizon

We know that a red sky [at night]
Portends a clear day [at morning]
What, prithee, does a sky of pink
Foretell? Should we expect our 
Day to show uncertainty rather
Than clarity? Erring [of course]
On the side of delighting sailors?
I tend to think [rather without
Evidence] that the pink is red 
Shivering from the cold, made 
Pale by temperatures too low
For comfort, too high for frost.
Pink sky at dusk, warm up the
Cabin, Captain [and if you must
Sail] wear long Johns and a parka.

Speaking of the New Yorker*

*https://wp.me/paH8Mg-xw

It is with dread and delight that I welcome the weekly, weekly mind you, into my living room.

There is no keeping up with this magazine. I understand this is a favorite complaint of aficionados of the New Yorker.

It is relentless in bringing a stream of fascinating articles, cartoons, and reviews into the house. You can see me trailing behind this onslaught of the memorable.

To not feel like a failure under this barrage I have set myself strict guidelines in my approach.

As it comes in, I immediately peruse the back pages. Here are cartoon caption contests and impossible puzzles I won’t attempt. Working from back to front, I come upon the critics from whom I learn a great deal. They are a must even if only scanned.

Unfortunately as is the New Yorker’s wont I am not satisfied skimming and have to go on to read every word.

My next task is to be selective about which article or interview I follow. Then on to the front of the book. Here The Talk of the Town captivates.

Here’s the tricky part. I now have only 5 days to peruse this week’s issue, get a glimpse at an article or 2 from the pile of back issues before turning over the publication. My husband takes it from there, delivering a couple of old New Yorkers to the recycle bin.

This lessens my load and eases my conscience.

Early?

I heard a broadcaster say we are getting an early winter these last few days in the northeast. It struck me as strange. Usually by November I am accustomed to wearing my winter coat.

Last Saturday, the 12th of the month, the temperature was balmy. The sky was sunny and I was in a tee-shirt. Of course, it was a precipitous drop the next day. And the cold snap has held.

We may see the snowfall that used to greet us over Thanksgiving this year again. The usual early snow to kick off the holiday season.

In a manner of speaking

When of a sudden I forgot how to
Form a sentence or express my
Thoughts in the language of my
Birth, I felt like the chameleon 
On my great aunt's wall. I had a
New life and a language that 
Consumed me; I had changed. 
I had the words I needed to not
Just fit in but those I use to blend.
Like that small lizard, I blushed
To match the scenery. I took on
The sounds of my adopted place. 
My colors were the broad A's of 
Queens. Translations sat on the 
Tip of my tongue waiting. They 
Would not or could not slide off 
In order to enter the conversation.