Please remember this is a non political post. If you make comments I have to trash I will put you on the banned list. I’m sorry this comment is necessary and prominent, but it is always needed. Be thankful or pass by this post, please.
I hope that you will bear with me during the first part of my post, as I use this opportunity to remember and be thankful for lots of people who made my year survivable, and not only helped me, but taught me much. I promise it’ll get better shortly.
This year Thanksgiving Day will be different for many of us, and you might even be stumbling over the gratitude, thankful, and happy part. If so, I hope to offer a few thoughts to change your mind.
For my family, and yes, for me as well, this has just been an awful year, the worst of my life so far. I found out this year that I had never really made an acquaintance with suffering, and long term severe pain, and I’ll just tell you straight up that I wish that had continued.
I mention my injury because it does lead to my point. Even in the midst of pain and near despair, I had to recognize that my blessings were many, and many of them came to me directly because of my injury. From moments after I had my fall, I had family to care for me, in ways large and small, three generations of family. I had friends to help as well, and boy, did I need all of them.
I dare say I had more prayers offered up for me than I’ve had my whole life. I had wise and kind people who understood just being there when nothing could be done except to be. Some of them lived far, far away, but they found wonderful ways to just be there when I needed it. At times I needed to be kicked instead of coddled, and my husband, a fine master of the blunt kick appropriately applied was not always around to do it, so there were a few friends with the kindness (I do sincerely mean that) and courage and wisdom to gently offer a nudge.
Speaking of husbands, mine is the best. He kept our lives going, cared for me, even when it humiliated and enraged me at the amount of care I needed, he cooked, shopped, cleaned, made all the rounds of doctor and therapy appointments, and worked a full time job. When he was needed out of town for work he refused to go until I was stable and safe. When it would have been okay and enjoyable for him to go on his Saturday shooting trips, he refused to go until I was safe…and less miserable. From the minutes after I called him following my fall until today, he has been what God made him to be, an unfailing rock.
I told my sons, he exercises those for better or worse vows just as well, just as strongly, just as faithfully and without one complaint in the for worse times as well as the for better times. When God made this man, he stood back and knew this one would stand against all struggles and hard times, that his heart would never falter, nor his step slow. This man will outlast any hard times and struggles. I am not really fit to stand beside him, but I sure am grateful, thankful, and happy that I get to.
My sons and daughters in law were exceptional in being there for me, and in rearranging their schedules and lives to help. My grandchildren even spent days fetching and carrying when I needed someone here with me. Extended family and friends helped in so many ways, from meals, cleaning, rides to doctors’ visits, and shopping for us.
Last but not least, EMTs, doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, techs, physical therapists (my favorite people in the world right now), and all the medical personnel who have helped me survive and have hope of thriving again one day. For the fact that I had the best medical care in the world available at 4 in the morning and continuing through my recovery period. For gifted surgeons, especially, I am thankful. For experienced therapists who almost had to teach me to walk again.
Truly, I have had some of the greatest blessings and kindnesses of my life this year. Dear God, I am sorry that I spent more time complaining to you about my sorrows and pains than thanking you for the blessings you sent my way. I really, really hope I do better in the future.
And that leads me to thoughts about our world, in a general way, and our country specifically, and all that we Americans have faced this year as planet Earth has crazily made its voyage around our sun.
Those of us who are old enough were blessed to really learn about Thanksgiving from parents and teachers. In my childhood, every year we spent hours at school painstakingly making hand turkeys and putting on plays honoring the Pilgrims and Squanto and his fellow Indians who taught the settlers how to survive. We found out that our forefathers and mothers fought the elements, lack of proper knowledge and preparation, supplies, illness, starvation, and death the first winter they arrived in America. We found out how they learned to hunt, fish, but more importantly, plant and harvest, build and plan, prepare and prevail.
We learned those things, but I don’t think even our teachers and parents made us realize how much bitter, backbreaking hard work they endured on top of sickness and loss. We could never have understood what those men, women, and children endured, but we at least were taught to honor and remember it.
We were taught that they did the most important thing of all in the fall of the year after their first harvest. They set aside a day to honor and thank God for bringing them through, for blessing and saving them.
We kids did absolutely understand their thankfulness, and by extension our own. We proudly celebrated the troubles and triumphs of our American forefathers, blessed to begin a new life in this wonderful land of ours, our home, our America. I believe that being taught our Thanksgiving stories laid a foundation for patriotism.
Those first struggles set the American character for the future. Increasing numbers of colonists would step onto rather small wooden ships with poor food and little accommodation to human needs and brave the wild Atlantic storms to find homes in our wilderness, and they had their own fierce battles and struggles, despairs and triumphs.
In time American patriots, who did not yet possess the name Americans, would fight tyranny, rise up, band together in rag tag militias and buy the freedom, in blood, to found the greatest country the world has ever known, the United States of America. A new country born from persecutions, unfair taxation, and no representation. Sounds familiar?
Our young country would continue to grow and prosper in the face of adversity. A government had to be set up, the Constitution formed from passionate ideas and dreams and hopes from passionate men. The Bill of Rights was added. The fledgling country faced the debt incurred during the Revolution, and immediately foreign policy problems had to be dealt with.
As settlers streamed into frontier lands in western New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and other as yet unsettled and un-named states, armed conflicts with Indians became a part of American history.
Later came such challenges as the debate over the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and always, the great movement westward toward what Americans named their Manifest Destiny. Texians defined courage and patriotism, sacrifice and indomitable will at the Alamo, burning an unrivaled and epic tale of valor into the history of mankind.
The long years of pre civil war struggle between Free and Slave states, the Abolitionist Movement, the Underground Railroad, Bloody Kansas, finally firing off the first shots of the Civil War at Fort Sumter. The battles, wins and losses for both sides, with so many casualties, and particularly in the South, starvation and death brought to civilians struggling just to survive.
The struggles continued with the aftermath of the war and the assassination of President Lincoln. Reconstruction. Hardship, bitter enemies taking perhaps the long way toward rebuilding a bloodied and torn nation. Still more westward expansion.
Canals dug, railroad lines built, mining strikes, economic crises. Disease, famine, natural disasters. Epic villains, from the Barbary pirates to the Russians and British (again!) in the Northwest to Spain and Mexico in the South and Southwest and California.
Gold rushes and land rushes. Riches discovered, fortunes made, destinies sought and found. From the Bread Basket to the Dust Bowl, with World Wars and Asian conflicts, the Great Depression between wars, Americans kept thriving, eventually even winning the race to put a man on the moon.
From our first moments until this very minute, we Americans have fought the battles that are ours to fight, poured out our blood, sweat, and tears in rivers of sacrifice.
Hundreds of peoples we are, from the Indians of the Americas, the Europeans who crossed oceans, the Asians, Africans through slavery and later those who came seeking a better life, peoples from every continent and probably almost every country, we have formed this great and wonderful land and our people, Americans, encompassing every race, religion, and ethnicity known to mankind.
It was never easy, but it was always worth it.
Don’t you dare give up on us now. The best is yet to come, and if we have to bleed and sweat a little, well, it isn’t anything we haven’t done before. Today say your prayers and thank God for those who came before and pray for the courage to honor them in our time and with our own courage, will, and sacrifice. Liberty is not sold cheaply, ever.
It is Thanksgiving Day and we are a grateful people and a grateful nation. Let us celebrate that, especially today.
Beautiful Menagerie! Thankfulness will come to have more appreciation and respect in the coming days as our country moves through its paces of truth seeking. I know that when my family hits hard times, just remembering that we have warm beds, a meal everyday, a roof over our heads, and a relationship with our Father in Heaven…how blessed we truly are!
Thank you again for this lovely post…and praying for your continued healing! ?
Menagerie–another heartfelt, powerful writing–thank you.
God bless you, your husband, family and extended family of caregivers.
Treepers — Happy Thanksgiving
Sundance — thank you and Happy Thanksgiving
I propose a toast to all my treeper friends:
raise a glass at dinner today
“…to friendship that melts into love…”
and naturally, thank God for this day
peace n blessings
Thanksgiving In A Foxhole………………..
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/thanksgiving-in-a-foxhole-1950/383191/
Never forget the sacrifices our countrymen have made to protect our rights/protect our vote
RTD: My late father was over there. All those black and white images of GI remind me of him and his time.
I am thankful for the millions of true Patriots willing to fight for our Constitutional Republic. It is truly heartwarming. May you all enjoy our good life and common sense of brotherhood.
I am thankful to be here in America. Having lived 22 years in China, last January, myself (American born), my wife and two children came to the States on Holiday to see my mother. Covid hit and we have not been allowed to return. Our home and business is there, -landscape architect-. Now I unload trucks and stock shelves to feed my family and I AM STILL THANKFUL. I just hope truth and justice prevail with this election. I am also thankful to Sundance, to whom I have been able to follow this presidency with a great more accuracy than I could from ANY other news source. God’s speed on your trials and tribulations with Wordspress. YOU are essential. Thank you.
Call me Brock. 903-952-2947.
When I was ill and miraculously didn’t die but was left deformed with lots of missing body parts I fought my disease every day for 6 years. One day I had an epiphany and became very grateful for that disease and what it taught me. I had to grit my teeth sometimes to thank GOD but I did and I truly am filled with gratitude that I struggled with pain, needing help (humbling) and staring death in the eyes. 30 years later I’m here filled with FAITH, knowing I am on my 2nd go, therefore I am FREE to be ME and fight for what is right LOVE YOU ALL.
Happy Thanksgiving fellow Treepers. Have a wonderful day full of family, friends, food and fun.
Beautiful and touching post–nothing touches the heart quite like having an illness and receiving so much love and support. I am blessed to be almost 3 years out from Stage 4 cancer with no active disease at present which I am so grateful. This lIfe is so wonderful and amazing and worth fighting for. Loved remembering the way Thanksgiving used to be taught and celebrated in school…so grateful I grew up when I did and had a real true blue American education. Thank you and Sundance for your dedication to saving the American soul and our great Constitution, and for providing fellowship for so many.
Happy Thanksgiving Treepers! I’m not going to make it home today to SoCal from my work assignment in FL but I’ve gotten with a neighbor here and we are making turkey dinners with all the fixens for some of our shut in/struggling neighbors. God bless CTH and God bless America!
[…] Happy, Yes, Happy! Thanksgiving Day […]
Psalm 136.
Read it beloved Treepers.
May your hearts swell with great and enduring joy.
???
Amen, beautifully said ?
Thank you for this, as we truly do need to take a step back and think about all the good in our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and God bless.
Thank you.
So touching and heartwarming.
Happy Thanksgiving.
When you cover and align your history and ask what is the measure. Having lapped the globe twice and a skirmish under my belt, then stand in a foreign desert watching a rolling AAV with a large oil smoked American flag fluttering its wake, you being to understand what freedom is.
Another time, in another land, I looked into the eye of a man with no hope of him improving his lot. It was not that he wasn’t capable, he lived under government rules that made him a modern day indentured servant.
Sitting among three Arab friends they asked me what was my religion, I replied I without religion. This caused a heated discussion in Arabic amongst them when one eyes got wide and asked what is my parents religion, I said Christian. Another discussion among them and concluded I too was a Christian. In response I said no, because as an American I have freedom to choose to have or not to have religion. That moment I knew the gap between our cultures could not be bridged. I was yoked to a faith by birth, not by choice and by virtue of geography I was born in this country where freedom allows unlimited choices. And for that alone I’m thankful.
Thank you Menagerie.
Thank you all Treepers and readers;
For Godly leaders, fighters and Patriots.
Among a few blessings of this Day.
“For this new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
We thank thee,
Heavenly Father,
Amen”
Blessings to you all, friends!
I’m thankful for the millions who came to these shores with the idea of making something “better”. A better place to live, work, worship, and bring more generations into the world who would carry on that dream to keep making something “better”.
I’m thankful that my family, escaping religious persecution came here over 400 years ago, thus ensuring that I would be born in a country where I could and would experience all the blessings that they paid forward.
I am resolved that I will not betray those who have gone before, those who sacrificed and died to give the blessing for which I am now so thankful to have, so help me God.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is the place where Thanksgiving’s true meaning is known and understood. It’s not ‘turkey day’ or ‘football & food coma’ day. This is the day we give thanks to Almighty God. This is the day we give thanks to people in our lives for their role both big and small.
I’ve lamented here many times about Thanksgiving getting short shrift. Seems our society goes straight from Halloween to Christmas. I hope and pray this Thanksgiving will be a catalyst for renewed patriotism, a deeper connection to God and that our American history will be front and center.
We have more to be thankful for than ever!!
I pray for everyone to have a Blessed Thanksgiving!
Beautiful post.
I have no other words.
Thank you Menagerie.
Peace, Love, and Blessings on this Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Proclamation
[New York, 3 October 1789]
By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed—for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New-York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
George Washington
For anyone who wants to read the original account of the first Thanksgiving.
William Bradford, Edward Winslow, “Mourt’s Relation; or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth,” p. 131:
https://archive.org/details/mourtsrelationor00brad/page/132/mode/2up
Beautiful post Menagerie! Best wishes for your full recovery! Happy Thanksgiving to Sundance and all Treepers. Thank you, Sundance for all you do for us each and everyday. God Bless our courageous President and his family, our beloved Country and our precious family’s.
A blessed Thanksgiving to all who are trying to save the Republic…All 80,000,000 million of you…
I second that. <3 to all.
As I read the comments of others this morning, I realize how truly blessed I am, and Thank God for these blessings. Your post is heartfelt and beautifully written (as yours always are), Menagerie. Thank you for that, and Thanks to all our fellow Treepers!
Thanks Stella. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
With great Thanksgiving for all of God’s blessings to me, us, and y’all!
Happy Thanksgiving all of you. Enjoy this beautiful day.
I have so much to be thankful for. I am so glad I found all of you at CTH.
We are so lucky to live in America the beautiful
Happy Thanksgiving to all. I enjoyed this column with my quiet, morning coffee while the hubs is still asleep….I am thankful to have a found a place within the branches here, and have learned much, felt camaraderie, felt the prayers, and also been reminded to complain less to our Father. We are having a small dinner, just the two of us and I am grateful for the simplicity. My son and his girlfriend are stopping by to visit this morning, and my son had requested a batch of “mom’s stuffing” to take with him…as the “gluten free stuff” her family serves “tastes like crap”…That made me chuckle and happy too, that he wants a little bit of ‘home’ at the in-laws….Have a wonderful day friends and be blessed.
Came home from church last night–the annual praise service before Thanksgiving–but didn’t feel too good. Took my temp: 100.2. Today, I’m assuming I have covid: cough, headache, fever. I have asthma and diabetes, and I’m over 60, but I have great confidence that my life is in God’s hands. Daughter’s wedding is in 16 days. Glad I got it now, rather than a week from now. God is good. All the time.
Get well soon Cavemom!
Happy Thanksgiving to all Treepers and Patriots !
From the pen of Rev. Dr. Peter Hammond in South Africa.
Something to ponder!
Gathered around the huge table, which is overflowing with lovingly prepared dishes, all the members of the Conservative Treehouse Family are a sight to behold! From near and far, Americans and citizens from around the planet, we all share a common bond. We seek Truth.
“And now, Alligatriot, what are you thankful for?” (A long Thanksgiving tradition for our family.)
I am most thankful for Love. It binds us. It allows us to make mistakes. It forces us to forgive each other. It endures. Amen.
Thank you, Menagerie for an outstanding Thanksgiving Day reminder of what is important in our lives.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL!
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I’m caring for a father in his ’80’s with pancreatic cancer, and on a chemo regime, and a husband with a blood infection requiring daily infusions of antibiotics. It’s Just one of those years.
And I’m grateful to be the healthy one caring for them.
Wrapping you in a big thankful cyber hug. I dealt with two dear relatives and pancreatic cancer. They are blessed to have you.
zephyrbreeze, I have had my share of illnesses and tragedies to deal with, just remember God will never give you more than you can handle. Keep the faith as you care for your loved ones. You are there for a reason. Bless you for being there for those in need.
May God bless you richly for being an angel caretaker of your loved ones.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Happy Thanksgiving my very excellent friends down south, from a true supporter (cant call myself a patriot but would if I could) in Canada. You do have so much to be thankful for..this year has seen a rising of patriots like I have never witnessed any other time.
In the midst of hardship, pain, suffering, it is difficult to find words of thanksgiving. Yet that is exactly what we should do. Not to be thankful for hardship itself, but for the fortitude to see it through, not for the difficulties but for the lessons learned or to be learned.
Suffering pain daily for years, I know it creates a soul deep despair at times. Medications for pain dull the mind and senses, and yet functioning without the medications is difficult. Through nearly 6 years of continual pain, medications including hydrocortisone and morphine to blunt the worst of it, gabapentin at the highest doses, just to get a few hours rest at night, while it dulls the mind, I reached a point where I had enough. I weaned off all these medications, while accepting increased pain, learning to accept pain and how to channel pain into a separate place in my mind. 6 months later, I find my thought processes clearer, my pain sharper yet contained in my mind, I have learned to deal with functioning as well as possible. I am not thankful for the pain, nor the causes of it from an accident, but I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to learn how to deal with it on my own better terms. It takes sacrifice and acceptance of reality, but it has made the difference in my life since that fateful day more tolerable, and easier to deal with set backs as challenges rather than obstacles. This is MY choice. This is MY life. I choose to live it MY way, as free human being. That in itself is something to be truly grateful for.
Life is difficult for many of us. It is through the hardship and pain that we are forged into being who we should be, or we fail and fall into wallowing in self pity rather than accepting the challenge before us. I don’t believe God sets hardships purposely in our paths, but He gives us choices to how to deal with those hardships, and that gives us the means to strength. We should live our best lives that we can, each and every day. None of us will get out of here alive, so we should be alive through the time allotted us and live it to the fullest. I am thankful for that. And for those around me who give me the aid of their own strengths.
I also chose to wean myself off of pain medications. I am hopeful that after a year or so the pain will be much less, but right now, over four months after my accident, it is still constant, but I can manage it. Like you, I prefer life without medication most of the time. I’m still on something for the nerve pain, but also hope the nerves will eventually heal.
Thanks for sharing your journey, and I’ll be praying for you. Enduring pain requires a lot of strength to get through the day.
Thank you for all you do Sundance, and a very Happy Thanksgiving too all of you here. I know that you all here will never allow anyone to ruin your Thanksgiving. As Sundance says: “Live your best life”.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and God bless!
Menagerie, so beautifully written. It brought tears of gratitude to my eyes.
I wish you soon have a healthy and pain-free life.
I wish Sundance all the best, and THANK YOU for all you do. And moderators too.
I wish all Treepers and families a healthy and happy life. And stay Strong.
And God Bless America!
Lurker never poster
I can’t place a value on family, friends, fellowship and honesty. That’s why I celebrate Thanksgiving. May you and all of yours experience the same. God bless.
COVID sucks, but I’m thankful I’ve gotten to spend every day with my three year old son since I began working from home in March. He sure wears me out, though!
Thank you for all you contribute Menagerie. This was a wonderful walk through America’s history and her strengths and complexities. We all should be extra grateful today for what was given to this nation, by those before us, every step of the way–courage, determination, independent spirit and our never ending love of being free to choose our own path in life.
I pray you recover completely as soon as possible. You are an honest, compassionate and perceptive person with more inner strength than you realize. The best is yet to come is correct!
Thank you for reminding us of all that is America and giving us the “blunt kick” to keep up the fight for our great country!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!
HAPPY TURKEY DAY AMERICA!!!
REMEMBER TO GIVE THANKS TO GOD FOR ALL HE HAS DONE AND ALL HE WILL DO FOR US!!!!
A beautiful post. I too was blessed to be educated in public school when the Pledge of Allegiance was recited every morning and the traditional Bible story of Jesus’s birth was performed by us kids in the auditorium every Christmas. Thanksgiving gave us not only fun craft-making, but the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was a very big deal in our family. The large California contingent of a much larger family spread across the Midwest gathered at my Grandparents’ home. A home my Grandfather had designed and that he and several of his sons had built with their own hands. When my Grandparents could no longer do Thanksgiving (even with a lot of help), some of it moved to our home. My Mother’s Thanksgivings were world class delicious and filled with warmth and gratitude for our many blessings. This year – parents and grandparents gone on before us, and our families separated by Covid – my husband and I will have dinner for two – grateful for all that God and our families gave us, and looking forward to a better 2021…
Menagerie, I am so sorry to hear of your accident… We are indeed blessed when we have loving, loyal mates and families to see us through the bad times. Hoping you are seeing your way out of your difficult time…
The song posted below was sung in my childhood home in the 1940s and 1950s by my mother and her ten sisters, in Danish. As I learned to play the piano in the 1950s, one of my first desires was to be able to play this song passably well. Through high school and then adult years, it remained an anchor for my heart in all the tumult of life-as-it-happens.
The song documents that gratitude is a reality-based choice – it is not a feeling (although gratitude may give rise to feelings) and it does not mean everything is easy or pain-free. During our last thirty years together, my late husband and I sang it often for ourselves, privately, and also sang it publicly at the request of friends and acquaintances.
Menagerie, you and I know what it is to give thanks with a trembling heart, acknowledging the realities of God’s presence and provision even as our hearts may struggle with the moment-by-moment experience.
Psalm 94:18,19 is in my armament these days:
“If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my souls.”
God’s present comforts are not dependent on my “stopping every anxious thoughts”. The reality is that His generous mercy meets me “in the midst” of reality.
Color me grateful!…for what this song has brought to me over the 76 years of my life and for the reality that it presents.
…..PS…..I only have one soul, of course…..good grief……
Happy Thanks giving..
A short video from My trip..
Happy Thanksgiving, Treepers. 🙂