The cold is finally here. Jackets and layers. The quickening of the dark. The sense that something special is drawing near. Christmas has moved up a little each year. It used to be no decorations went up until the day after Thanksgiving. Now, pretty much every house, town, and most stores are already decorated. The music is already on the radio. Most people are just giving themselves over to it. We’ve had a rough few years and need the holiday season.
During Halloween, I simply mourn the fact that children of today will never know the crowded streets and roads with kids roaming to every house in search of candy. They only know trunk-or-treats. Their parents have a reason to be scared, but it wasn’t always that way.
Christmas will always hold a special place in my heart as my three-year-old Christmas is my first memory. It will always hold a special place for religious reasons. It holds a special place because there are wonderful novels, films, and television specials that spin heart-notes of nostalgia. A bright spot in the bleak midwinter indeed.
Thanksgiving has become overlooked as something we are all duty-bound toward but is not all that exciting: eating too much (sometimes with people we can’t stand) and watching football. There is a simple pleasure in this that maybe just doesn’t hit the world of today where so many families are broken. Yes, family sometimes drive you crazy, but they can also ground you to your roots and, if you’ve been blessed with a good home from whence you came, the time should be relished.
Of course, over the years, the table has gotten both smaller and bigger. My father and his enormously joyous presence are sorely missed, but the addition of my nephew’s wife adds to the joy of the family gatherings. Even dogs and grand-dogs and the odd cat. Again, I know not all families are like mine—the kind where you sincerely desire to be around your flesh and blood—and I mourn for those who settle for Friendsgiving parties or no longer have their family.
I plan to do a lot more thinking and less talking this Thanksgiving. Meditating on the things for which I’m grateful and simply smiling at the faces around me, which are all bound by familial ties and even look a little alike.
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