The morning before Thanksgiving, actually most of that day, was spent running around buying raw vegetables and then racing home to wash, clean, chop, dice, season and mix this and that for Thanksgiving dinner.
My eighty-three year old mother came by to help and my oldest daughter dropped in with my grandson.
I couldn't help but think about the cycle of life -- watching Mom's head bent low fixing the traditional green bean casserole, her body stooped with age and degenerative disc disease. We tried to give her 'easy' things to do so she didn't have to use pressure on her arthritic fingers to chop. She needs to feel useful as do most of us. She's well into her sunset years.
My grandson, with his perfect toddler body, chubby little index finger bent out like a swaying bridge in a tell-me-what-that-is point, barely at the dawn of his life, and my daughter, chasing him around eager to share knowledge, to help him learn--I suppose she's at high noon.
I don't like to think about myself getting older or Mom already nailed firmly into old age.
I even see the beginnings of crows feet around my daughter's eyes! Never mind how did that happen to her, I want to know how the years sped by so fast rendering me with a daughter who has crows feet! I want to know how I could possibly have a 34 year-old daughter when I feel 34. I know I'm beyond the high noon years of my child, but I'm not at sunset yet -- I'm guessing I'm at 3 p.m.!
Then I thought about gratitude.
How very lucky I am to be surrounded by a loving family. How very lucky I am to have 'enough' and more than enough. How grateful I am to be blessed with a witty, generous husband; a bright son; another beautiful and sweet daughter and three other grandchildren; two sons-in-law I adore, in-laws I love to visit ... life is good. I feel humbled by all that I have been blessed with.
What makes all of this so sweet is remembering darker days when I didn't know how I'd afford the turkey for Thanksgiving or have enough money to put Christmas presents under the tree. Life was one big worry that there wouldn't be 'enough' and yet when I look back on those days, always and without exception, abundance prevailed. My God/Higher Power provided. I am blessed.
Life is so good...
There is much to be grateful for...