Thanksgiving Weekend

In reflecting on my Thanksgiving weekend (American Thanksgiving to our Canadian Readers), I am a little torn. It was a quiet weekend with just my husband and daughter. We laughed, played board games, played make believe, ate too much and made crafts. It really was amazing. In the quiet time, I was able to reflect on the things that I do not usually think about when I think about my thanksgivings. The basic things like clean air, clean water and that I got up today.

The latter, however, is why I am a torn. This past week a family member’s mother passed, a friend’s father in law passed, my husband’s colleague lost her husband and my daughter lost her very first bus driver. In hearing of this sad news, I struggled with posting anything. Grief is such a hard thing. I feel for every one of their family members, friends and communities. It is often not until we lose someone that we understand his or her impact on our daily life.

This reflection on the fragility of life reminded me of something someone said to me when my mother passed. I have no idea who it was that said it, but someone told me that I had to consider how lucky we were to have her for the time we did. Well anyone that knows me knows I am a glass half-full kind of person but even for me, at that time, that was a hard pill to swallow.

As I move through life with the grief of mother’s passing, however, I have started to see the wisdom in the words. Focusing on the pain was something I needed to do at the time, but now I can see that focusing on the wonderful Mom that I had does not mean I have to be in pain. This blog has been a great medium to help us do just that, to think, to talk, to express our feelings, and to reminisce about our loved ones.

So to all of us that have lost someone dear to us, let us remember them through the happy memories we have had with them. Let us give thanks for the time we did have with them and the memories we made. May we also, however, find ways to heal, to celebrate them and to keep them close to our hearts as we enter the Holiday season. 

Mom and I circa 1978.