gratitude day

Well, if you are in the States you may not know this, but this is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada. It's basically the same holiday, just substitute Monday for Thursday, hockey for football, and skip the mall frenzy (we do that on Boxing Day.) I admit to a bit of ambivalence about this holiday. I'm not keen on consumerism, colonialism, or factory farming (or hockey and football, for that matter, sorry to say...) but I love holidays and feasts, the pagan in me loves the idea of marking the seasons and celebrating harvest, and the buddhist in me appreciates the idea of taking a whole day for gratitude. And honestly, I love food and cooking and taking a day off to eat! But it's bittersweet. Bob and I are both distant from our extended families, and we feel it now, when most friends are off to celebrate with crowds of relatives. Still, I enjoy making a really festive day for our little family of three. Above is our menu - my daughter and I love to cook together and to make an occasion of meals, so this is right up our alley. We have no one to please but ourselves, so we cook what we want; often salmon, which is the original feast food of our part of the world. Right now it's almost noon, I'm still in my pj's, sipping a Mimosa, Bob's out cutting firewood in the sunshine, and dear daughter is organizing her fall wardrobe. Soon we'll go for a long walk in the sunshine, then enjoy preparing our modest feast together. Here is what I feel truly grateful for:

• a beautiful child who is flourishing and healthy
• a wonderful life-partner
• a warm community where I feel a sense of belonging
• the opportunity to live in a beautiful, clean, safe, and peaceful part of the world
• the opportunity to do work that I love every day
• my own health
• the exquisite natural world which surrounds me

There are many many more things that could go on this list. I would love it if you would share with me, with a comment, the things for which you are grateful today.