Two more days and it's Thanksgiving...Turkey Day! Though we see the hallowed foul served almost year-round, it is so "exalted" on this particular annual feast. Not the chicken, the pheasant or the rabbit--which, I suppose, would have been roaming the wild in those days in the 1600's when the Mayflower docked and even long before the first pilgrims had lain eyes on Squanto. The turkey, with the unassuming spread of its fanned tail feathers, had landed a spot in the middle of that fateful, memorialized table in history.
Why? Again, I know not. Perhaps, it was the first and biggest foul they could find before the first guests arrived....who knows? All I know is that this Thanksgiving, I CANNOT HAVE TURKEY! Darn it! On second thought, I don't really care...I only eat turkey when my husband bakes it. I don't like it in my sandwich, my salad or as any form of appetizer at all! But I did look forward to Turkey Day with...just that... turkey!!! (Sigh...)
Why can't I have turkey? Turkey meat is loaded with tryptophan which could react negatively with my current diet (of mostly fungus!). After my latest "bump in the road", we have had so many radical changes in our family lifestyle but none as drastic as MY diet! We never were meat lovers though we lick our fingers over my beef tips stew, sweet babyback ribs and backyard barbecues on hot summer days after a dip in the pool was something my kids and their friends always looked forward to...although my husband kept telling me they only came for the sides of eggrolls, empanada or chicharon! I can only look at ribs and beeftips now although the rest of the family is allowed their fill every 2 weeks or so. Surprisingly, they never asked for it lately.
Nevertheless, I love Thanksgiving. If only for the important message it permeates into our society once a year, it is, indeed, worth the bank holiday....the hassles at the airport or the bumper to bumper traffic...the bustle and hustle in the kitchen...and God knows how many burnt turkeys in various pots, ovens and fryers nationwide! If only we could stop and thank God as we do on Thanksgiving Day....everyday.
Families travel far and wide---by car, by plane and some less fortunate ones, even on foot---to wide open doors filled with family and a very warm welcome! This is one day we stop our "normal" lives to sit at the table and share the blessing of family, reminisce over happy times and reflect over trying circumstances or loved ones gone on by. Is there anything different on Thanksgiving from any other day of the week? Here in the Chicagoland area, it is supposed to be a sunny day...a warmer one than today or the day before. Other than that, the sun will still rise on the east and set over the west...the same sun will orbit the earth on that day and the same moon will light that night and when all the dishes are cleared off the table, you'd be staring at the same skies and the same stars (maybe give or take a few hundred) when you sip your wine outside and mourn over the day that passed.
Would we be any different then than we are now? We may see the same corners of Mother Earth as we do everyday, sans the vestiges of amazing daily transformations, but we are never sure if the faces we see today will be the same faces tomorrow...the friends we hold dear now may no longer be there the day after...even the hands that we work with today may be changed by fate in the next moment. Should we wait for an annual holiday to give thanks for all the bounty we have now? Should we wait when it no longer exists before we can grasp its importance in our lives? Do we always expect more and, thus, can no longer appreciate what we have at this moment?
It is true it takes a catastrophic event for a person to really take stock of what he has. For me, that was when I suddenly found a boulder smack in the middle of my "nicely crafted road" of plans. We live God's plans....we don't make them. We "adapt" to His will...and even if we do construct our own maze, He will always find a way to lead us out where He wills us to be and not where we wanted to exit. God makes His presence known in various ways and maybe He knew I was just too stubborn to be sent some "ordinary" signs! Or perhaps, He already did and I kept dodging the stones His angels were throwing to warn me so I merited a bigger boulder! That was my cancer diagnosis...out of the blue! Me...who had done everything I thought I knew NOT to get cancer! I was angry but not for long. I cried but I couldn't cry harder even when I tried. I am someone who always tries to find a silver streak of sunshine behind grey ominous clouds. It just took me a while to say the simple words God must have been waiting for me to utter all along! THANK YOU! Not for my cancer but for discovering HIM as my salvation when I knew everything that would and possibly could go wrong at that point (and just gave it all up to HIM) and the fact that He had sent me the best people to "walk with me" and help me along this untraversed and feared trail. As somebody had quoted (unfortunately, I don't recall who...)"It is up to us to make trails out of trials." Very true!
That big boulder shook me to the core and when I thought I was no more...that's when I became who I wanted to be. I have become aware of who I was meant to be: a person very aware of the hassles of motherhood and still thankful for the privilege...a wife, conscious of the faults in my marriage and still thankful for the gift of a faithful husband...a friend, always worried of not giving enough and is very thankful for the blessing of forgiving friendships...a nurse who strives to give more and do better and is still thankful for an opportunity to touch different lives...a neighbor who makes an effort to be sensitive to the neighborhood's needs and very grateful for everyone's overwhelming support. All these and more, I am very thankful for.
So I just realized, I may have scallops and green beans without the turkey but I would still love celebrating the holiday because Thanksgiving for me has become an everyday thing. I wake up thanking God for another day...another magnificent glimpse of nature, another opportunity to say hello and smile at a stranger, another moment to savor the same mushrooms I have every single day, another moment to listen to Fr. John Hurley's raspy warm voice giving the homily at church, another chance to hug my family (it's "air hugs" from the kids, this time being flu season everybody's afraid to get me sick and am still on chemo protocol though my white count level is 8.2!) ...that, too, is something I thank God everytime! My labs have been within normal all throughout my treatment that sometimes, I wonder if I'm "immune" to chemotherapy! All through these, I feel very blessed to sit down on this one day with family and friends and collectively praise and give thanks to The One Up There for all that we have and all we yet have to receive. That's my daily mantra...I always find something to be grateful for every few minutes and everytime, I try to remember to credit the One who blessed me with them.
So let's all give thanks and be merry for we are truly blessed! T, by the way, is for Thanksgiving......or, in my case, just some Tofu!
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