What an amazing world in which we live today where with the flick of a button we can reach out and connect to others quickly and intimately, forming close and cherished friendships with people we would otherwise have never had the opportunity to meet.
I have only been a part of this blogoverse for a relatively short period: at times, avidly; at others, and far more often, much less so. But it is one of the warmest and most welcoming communities I have ever had the great fortune of which to be a part.
In the USA, today is Thanksgiving, a national holiday in which we gorge ourselves on a feast of as many comfort dishes that we can cram onto the table, fueling ourselves for the cut-throat marathon of Shopping on Black Friday, a national sport we have turned into an art form, where we consume as many unnecessary gadgets as we did unnecessary calories the day before.
We Americans often joke about this holiday, about being forced to share a meal with boorish relatives and endure endless political conversations where we turn blue at the table, not because we are choking on the over-salted stuffing but because we are biting our tongues so hard. (Those less mannerly should choke on the stuffing, in my humble opinion, because they don’t bite hard enough or they don’t bite at all, but that’s another topic for another day.) Of course, I type this with MY tongue firmly in my cheek, for such Blessings I have! In my little corner of the world, our Thanksgiving dinner has been postponed for a day so that I may fully recover from my 4th round of nasty cold and flu. But I am recovering! I am upright in bed instead of prone! That bed is in a comfortably warm and cozy home which is paramount when it’s in the single digits outside and surrounded by snow! I have a beloved husband with whom I have just celebrated our silver wedding anniversary and who is at this very moment cooking up the most ambrosial delights in our kitchen. I have a cherished Clan who doesn’t mind postponing dinner a day (well, MG IS cooking!!), because “having the meal and enjoying the company is the point,” not the day. I have an extended group of family and friends who have been pinging my phone with loving text messages throughout the day, reminding me that I am loved and missed and cherished. I have a loyal and furry friend who, even though barking his head off in warning to the neighbor canine who has dared to pee on “our” snow, still comes by to check on me every few minutes and to give me sweet kisses. And I have You, which was the point of this missive when I began typing much too long ago now…
In all of the hubbub and chaos and jesting of the day, Thanksgiving is the American day of Mindfully Counting Our Blessings. And I am grateful for All of You. You, who write faithfully, sharing your lives daily, cheering us on, constantly reaching out and enveloping us with comfort and joy and enriching our lives for the better. You don’t judge when we’ve been under a rock for months at a time and haven’t laid eyes on a keyboard, much less touched one. You don’t squander kindness. You don’t hold a grudge.
You write when you are in pain, when you are headed to hospital, when you are on holiday, when you are bereaved. You are constant and true in your grace and encouragement and in your care. I salute All of You. For those of you stateside, I wish you a Thanksgiving filled with Peace and Blessings. And for those of you across every pond, I wish you a day filled with Peaceful and Blessed Thanksgiving.
Chef Dan, as he is known to his students, was diagnosed with Stage III Multiple Myeloma in the summer of 2016 and has been in full remission for over three years. He credits this remission to his excellent medical care but also to his change of diet, which he altered immediately upon his diagnosis.