Thankful Thursday: seedless oranges

Thankful, yes - for SO many things.

Just now while peeling my orange I suddenly found myself once again remembering the orange groves around Fillmore, California.

I remember the neighbor who gave me oranges from her tree.

And she let me pick some of them!

I remember learning about the netting the growers put on the trees to keep out the birds - to produce seedless oranges… 

I do not understand all the details about cross-pollination 

but I do love seedless oranges.

And I am once again so dang grateful for those months in that place.

For those years and those places that we were able to call home for a minute 

A season 

A month

What an extraordinary thing 

A great privilege

I continue to be astonished

And grateful

Thankful Friday...

 

Today I am thankful for:

• Yummy little bite-sized cream cheese coffee cakes
• Daffodils and tulips blooming on our street
• Neighborliness
• Good books that lift my perspective
• Compassion & generosity from celebrities 
• Forgiveness when I mess up
• Grace when Thankful Thursday comes a day late
• Facebook memories to remind me of some of the best stuff in my life

Thankful Thursday: the first of the season

There you are!

I've been watching for you.

Thankful today?

 In these hard days of fear and sadness and injustice and killing... yes, depression lurks and taunts us.  It can be hard to be thankful.  But there are still good things...

Be thankful in terrible times?

What am I thankful for today?

There is much to be fearful or sad about.

Things have gone from bad to worse in our world.

The US and Israel have bombed Iran and now a dozen countries are involved.

There is much talk of Trump being anointed by Jesus to usher in Armageddon.

Takes me back to my years in church.

Oh, the awful feelings that flood my soul.

So what can I be thankful about this morning?

Every thing I think of feels minuscule or fragile.

On the other hand, I am so aware of the blessings I have.

I have to pause and ponder that I have much to share.

I am thankful that there are lots of people around me that I can love and listen to. And lots who need hugs.

Oh, and one more silly little thing...

I am also very thankful for shrimp alfredo.

I guess it's okay to pause and celebrate such an exquisitely delicious thing.

Daily celebration

Thankful Thursday it is.

Today I am thankful for Facebook Memories.

Because my joining Facebook back in 2008 coincided with a huge juncture in my life, these Memories offer me an incredible timeline of many of the changes large and small.

Taking some minutes to sit with those memories has become a cherished daily ritual for me - to gaze again at those favorite photos - in exotic or familiar places, too-cute shots of our grandkids as babies and then toddlers and now growing up so quickly.  What fun to read the stories and chuckle about the crazy experiences.

It has become a precious time of celebration and gratitude for me - as I shake my head in wonder at these amazing sights and stories - and I cherish the privilege of being able to live this phenomenal adventure - as well as this handy-dandy little way of pausing to remember it.

AND those Facebook Memories prompted - and assisted! - me in compiling and publishing my first book!   

Thankful Thursday Returns

It’s time!!!

Probably past time…

I think I’m a pretty thankful person.

It doesn’t take too much to get me to remember how good my life is.

I can quite readily admit that I am a person of privilege.

On the other hand, it also doesn’t take much for me to get all worried and fearful - or discouraged or grumpy -  about any number of things.  And yes, that seems to happen often these days.

I remind myself that I used to have a pretty solid Thankful Thursday practice where I would pause to think of at least one thing for which I am thankful.

It is time to do that again.

Today is Thursday and I pause to be thankful.

 

Today I am thankful that I have time to write.

And I am thankful for good health.

I hereby choose to resurrect this health-giving habit.

Thankful Thursday.

Traditions!!!

 Around this time of year my mind regularly revisits a boat-load of holiday memories and the traditions behind them.

Sometimes I take time to trudge way back to my childhood and walk across the road to Grandpa Frank’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I suppose we often had turkey with all the trimmings, but I especially remember the times when we had duck.  That has to be one of my favorite flavor memories.

Or I go back to Sunday mornings and find myself in the car with my dad as he drove his usual circuit to pick up a load of kids - and Mrs. Washington - for church. Mrs. Washington was a quiet little lady who worked as a house keeper for our bachelor neighbor over on the next corner and I remember her giving me a new pair of white socks every year for Christmas.

Thinking about Mrs. Washington's gift reminds me of two other old ladies in our church who also gave me little gifts.  I think it was Vera Cannon who lived on the corner across from our one-room country school...  or maybe it was Mrs. Johnson from the little burg of Snover - who gave me the dainty little hand-embroidered handkerchiefs through the years.  I still have a wonderful collection of lovely hankies - which take me back to those days and those sweet ladies.  I also still have a sturdy collection of the bigger and much more practical red bandana style manly handkerchiefs that my farmer dad used.  Now there's another tradition that created a significant memory!

Or I might find myself on Christmas morning once again discovering an orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking.  Those "stockings" were simply our real socks that we wore regularly - clean ones, of course.  In later years I made fancy stockings with names of each family member - which could contain lots more goodies!

There came a time when I realized that we might have to let go of a cherished tradition - or at least change it up a bit.  Like after big brother Dave met Becky at college and of course they wanted to spend Christmas together with both of their families - which meant it might not be on December 25 anymore.  Instead they figured out what dates they could come to the farm and we adjusted celebration calendar.  We simply had new dates for our family Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  Same traditions, new dates.

Then came little ones of the next generation and more new traditions.  For example, even though we lived just around the corner from our family home, it was decided that we should all be there to hang our stockings on Christmas Eve - no matter the calendar date - and to celebrate the fun of Christmas morning together.

Our own daughters now remember when we started to change the dates on OUR family calendar to accommodate THEIR new family connections.

They also remember the year when a new foster daughter was placed in our home on Christmas Eve - which meant yet another great shuffle - not just dates and times, but maybe even a re-distribution of gifts!  Yikes!

Yes, during the foster kid years, there were lots of variables in holiday traditions. And several new stockings added to the collection.

Then came the day - after 40 years in that big house with the giant Christmas tree and any number of stockings hung on the mantle - when we would no longer celebrate in that place.  The tree farm was sold and we would move our traditions to other sites.

It was really hard to let go of that amazing place and all of the traditions there - for all of us.  The girls consoled us by saying that we could take the memories and the spirit of the place with us.  That we would find new places to follow our traditions - a bit like we had shifted our calendar - moving Christmas Eve and Christmas morning to new dates.  And so we did.  

Actually we had already done that - for one year when we lived in the Dominican Republic.  There would be no real Christmas tree but somebody gave us a fake one. We wouldn’t have a fire in the fieldstone fireplace Bob had built so the girls made a paper replica and taped it to the wall. We had not packed the fancy Christmas stockings in our suitcases, so we reverted to using real socks.  Our beloved traditions evolved into new ones.

Life changes.

We adjust our calendars and create new traditions.

What a wonder it is to have so many beautiful memories to cherish.

Photo cred: Bob Sims, Santiago, en la Republica Dominicana, 1989...

Turkey Dinner

It had been a long time since we had 

our entire family around the table together 

for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner... 

so it was pretty important to me this year.  

What fun to pull out the brownstone dishes from 55 years ago...

I am terribly grateful for the opportunity and the fun.

I sure do love these people!

Anniversaries

 I tend to notice dates.

Significant dates.

Like anniversaries... of good things or not so good.

It was on this date in 2014 that we let go of something dear.

A cherished place 

Our Christmas tree farm

Our homestead

Our dream house we had built as newlyweds....

...

But now

For the last few weeks

I’ve been noticing something

Some good feelings

That I am starting to feel settled

Feeling at home in the new place

I seem to be feeling inordinately excited about the approaching holidays - and specifically about hosting our family celebrations once again.

This is the first time we’ve had a dining room in a really long time… since we moved out of the big house.  And to again have a fireplace where we can hang the stockings.

Plans are being made.

The menu is coming together.

The turkey has been chosen and is thawing in the fridge. 

Potatoes are being dug from the kids’ garden.  How cool is THAT?!?

...

Somewhere in the midst of the preparations and the good feelings I realized that this was the date of the that closing. That letting go… when we sold the Christmas tree farm.

Back in those days our girls would tell us things that really helped our perspective.

Things like the fact that we could take the good parts with us.

The spirit of the place.

That we could plant life in new places.

We knew they were right.

And now we get to enjoy yet another step of that wonder.

Another phase.

I also find myself remembering last year - the 10th anniversary of that letting go - when we were wishing, wishing… that we could be in our new home for the holidays… waiting for the final approval...  

But that didn’t happen.  

Well, EXCEPT for that one family dinner - and yes, it was take-out because of no working kitchen.

...

But now we are here and feeling at home.

We did it.

Sure enough, we brought "it" with us... that spirit of home.

We’ve planted life - which is already bearing fruit. 

A sense of community, connection, peace, welcome.

…

RIVENDELL

“That house was a perfect house,

whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing,

or just sitting and thinking,

or a pleasant mixture of them all.

Merely to be there was a cure

for weariness, fear and sadness.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

…