November arrives and with it comes “Black Friday, “Christmas commercials, advertisement coupons and flyers announcing another gigantic sale of the items required to “make your Thanksgiving Feast special this year”.

With every passing year the world outside of our cottage presents a slightly more commercial perspective on “the Holidays”. Things aren’t what they used to be!

Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.

 ~Willard Scott~

Thanksgiving, it seems has been forgotten somewhere between Halloween and Santa Claus. Yet, I sense a longing for the warm, beautiful Holidays of yesteryear when love rather than stress and anger shown on the faces of the people rushing past us.  Despite all of the “things” that are available to enhance the occasion…the essential elements seem to be missing.

I wonder if the LOVE expressed in the wonderfully reassuring security of a day spent with family at Grandmother’s house may be one missing element?  I’m afraid our society is pushing “family” to the back burner, too.

I recall a Thanksgiving table, laden with goodies, each item prepared with love; a home where we shared love, surrounded by family and friends basking in the gentleness, warmth and true giving of thanks for lives blessed by God. Thinking back to Thanksgiving celebrations from my childhood, I long for just such an old fashioned day.

If anticipation was a prerequisite for an old fashioned Holiday celebration, simplicity was the glue that held our traditions and values  together. Thanksgiving at Auntie’s was a celebration of simplicity. She based her plans and dreams on the firm foundation of a simple faith in God and His goodness and mercy. She prepared our feast with love and demanded we respect her traditions.

In preparation for the celebration of Thanksgiving this year we looked at other blogs to see what was being offered. We found cooking, decorating, entertainment, a timetable for dinner—everything needed to complete a Thanksgiving Day in our modern world.
But what of the gentleness, love and grace of those Thanksgiving Days from long ago? How
does one include the delicious odors wafting from the kitchen, or the laughter of children romping through the dining room looking for their seat at the table?  How can feelings of warmth and security be shared though fiber optics?  Is it possible to impart a sense of the true meaning of an old fashioned Thanksgiving across the vastness of cyberspace?  I think so…with a few simple words, borrowed from a 1920’s novel:

” Just enjoy to the depths of your soul—that’s worship.
Be thankful for everything—that’s praising God as the birds praise him.
And “do unto others— that’s all there is of love and
religion in one fell swoop.”
_Gene Stratton-Porter….The Harvester

And so…the secret of a real old fashioned Holiday..

Wherever you are, whatever the day holds for you, no matter in what circumstances you find yourself

ENJOY TO THE DEPTHS OF YOUR SOUL,
BE THANKFUL FOR EVERYTHING,
AND DO UNTO OTHERS!

You will be blessed with an old fashioned Thanksgiving Day!

God Bless us, one and all!