Thank You.

You say grace before meals.  All right.  But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.  ~ G.K. Chesterton

Thanksgiving's an odd bird, in my book. And my book ain't a cookbook. (Not this year, anyways, thanks to the glory that is Whole Foods' ready-set-meal.) It's a day to show "thanks," which is, in and of itself, quite lovely. But it's also, oftentimes (most times, if you talk to pretty much anyone I know and/or read about. In non-fiction books.), fraught and intermingled with pressure, family strife, timetables, quarrels, exhaustion, overwhelming...ness, and exasperation. I could be projecting here.

My own personal Thanksgiving was a healthy mix of: advertising deadlines; flu shots gone awry; an apparently ultra-unrealistically-optimistic view of my son's potty training abilities; pissed off clients; horrific correspondence tendencies on my part (Sh*t!); unfortunately successful procrastination eventualities; disorganization; bad timing; the perpetual lack of time for such things as showering and, well, cognition; and the internal strife of what kicks more ass - a homecooked meal or Whole Foods-as-personal-chef.

Simplicity won, I'll have you know. I backed down and allowed the "inner Jen" take the reins. I took a breath, I let go, and I let the laundry piles/magazines/shopping bags/toys/extraneous BS hang out in our bedroom with a door that shuts quite nicely. Man, our living room sparkled this past week... Not sure if I impressed anyone with my epicurean and decor-inspired grandeur, or lack, thereof, but my blood pressure was lower than 100, so... that's something.

I've been in a quandary these past few years about what to believe (religiously), what's out there, and who to thank. I am finding that I do know. I know who and what to belive in. I believe in love. I know beauty is everywhere. And I am thankful for so, so many things.....

If I had a camera at every time I was thankful, I would include here pictures of.......

• my parents holding hands, all the time
• the fresh flowers Nana would always set upon her beautifully sun-kissed dining room table
• the silly knick-knacks Pop adorned every single door frame of their wonderfully cozy Quincy house with...
• Grammy's cute perfume in her entirely pink bathroom...
• Grampy's garden
• all of my family, every generation, in the same room, laughing...
• the very first second I met my dear, dear friends
• the moment Ang opened the car door for me on our very first date
• the moment I first held my beautiful niece and nephew
• the second I first glanced at the monkeys
• my first everything.

I don't have pictures for those moments, but I'm grateful for them. I hold them close to my heart...
I may not be eloquent, nor am I freshly showered; I don't have a lot of money and I don't have material things to give; I've got issues when it comes to politics and I am quite a messy litle thing; but I am so, so very thankful...

xoxox