A STORMY THANKSGIVING

By Audrey Carli

A wailing wind and unexpected snow hit my bedroom window on Thanksgiving morning. I phoned my sister Margie and sadly shared that I must cancel my two-hour drive to share the holiday with her and her family.

I phoned my friend Julia and told her I’d be in town after all. “Come over and have a make-do Thanksgiving meal with me. “It’ll be a Thanksgiving brunch!”

Julie, single, lived alone since her widowed father died welcomed the plan for a brunch.

An hour later, we were seated at my dining room table with my mother’s traditional golden hued linen cloth and napkins. I set the table with the china dinnerware Mom had left me. The scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with raspberry jelly and the sliced oranges plus the steaming, vanilla flavored coffee completed our holiday brunch. Soft hymns about thanks to God for blessings sounded in the background.

We wrote a blessings list and read them to each other. Julia was thankful she had survived her premature birth and her parents bought her the crib the doctor had told them not to buy since she wasn’t expected to survive being only three pounds at birth. She grew up to be the valedictorian of her high school and earned a scholarship to the nearby college. She was thankful her father was able to raise her and provide a family home for him and her after her mother died when she was nine.

My blessings list included twenty-four years of happy marriage before my husband died from cancer. I was also thankful that my husband survived eight years after his near drowning during a storm while he was fishing. I also listed thanks for having a home office from which I could earn an income.

After Julia and I shared our blessings we felt gratitude for the storm that gave us the chance to count our blessings and a last minute brunch. We thought about our friend, Mildred. She had been in danger of losing her sight, but surgery saved it. We recalled how Norma, another friend, was orphaned at age four and adopted at age six. We know that she prays daily for her parents, husband and children.

Isn’t it great we can pause each year at Thanksgiving and be grateful?

Henry Ward Beecher said: “Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”

“Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Audrey Carli writes from Iron River, Michigan.