Memories and Thanks: Eve of the Next Moment

Personal Thoughts

Sitting in the quietness we sometimes take time to remember days long past and some not so long ago. For me it has been years, in fact I can't remember the last time I sat alone on what is considered in the United States of America Thanksgiving Day eve. My days growing up on a dairy farm at this time of night we may have been just getting changed to get cleaned up from finishing milking the cows so we could head to Wednesday night prayer meeting, just my Dad and Mom and the three of us kids. That's the way it was with our small country church in a nearby village. Many of us were related, not just a church family. Some we would be enjoying an afternoon meal with since we were dairy farmers as were they. But I was with others, with family.

Once in college sometimes away from home, but was with others in a church service or family from church. But after getting married we often spent Wednesday, sometimes Tuesday afternoon traveling three hours to north of Green Bay, Wisconsin to be with my wife's family for Thanksgiving and deer hunting. The last year in Wisconsin I was by myself. I had suffered a severe health breakdown and even the three hour trip would be exhausting, but I was thankful my wife and children were able to go.

After moving to South Carolina I can't think of any situation where I might have been alone the night before Thanksgiving. It was always a busy time. My wife was a great cook and the kitchen was always lively and busy in preparation of food and home to spend the next day with family.

Last year was the second Thanksgiving without my wife, but the night was always with family much the same. Tonight my youngest daughter had a very special activity for her two children so they left earlier. So this night is a night alone. It's a good thing, not that family is gone, but that I do have time alone. You can have time alone without feeling lonely. And remembering days long past, not a problem. As someone once said, nostalgia isn't what it used to be. Much like C. S. Lewis mentioned in his book “A Grief Observed” our memories of our loved one who has passed is usually an idealized memory even less accurate as years pass. So too our memories of years past are often the best, or possibly the worst, but rarely exactly accurate. But it might seem that very fact is what causes us to be thankful, be grateful.

Memories of years past can be so delightful. They may also be such that we are grateful we made it through them and can look forward with hope even though in that case it may still seem hopeless. Some never recover from some life changing events they have endured,and they feel like “what’s the use”?

All these thoughts remind me this night to be thankful for the many blessings, or maybe just thank God we made it through the year, or just need to be a family to the hopeless in quietness and confidence of which they may have neither.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Thank you for your time just sitting, reading, and thinking of your years, year, or heart even right now.