for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
-Epictetus
As I have done each and every Thanksgiving holiday for my entire life, I spent this past weekend in Muskoka with my family to celebrate the season, colours, and all that I have been blessed with in my life.
Kimberly and I began the trek to Bala around 7:30 Friday night. One coffee stop, several jujubes and pringles eaten, a bunch of slow downs around Toronto, and 3 DMB cd's later, we pulled into the driveway at 10:30. I hate driving up in the dark. The trip seems so much longer, and I find it harder to see, even with my glasses. Still, we made it safe and sound, and didn't even have to pee that bad (trust me, this is an ongoing issue with our long drive trips!).
The weekend was nothing short of perfect. The weather was stunning: Saturday brought a beautifully sunny 15C day with a small breeze (although a -2C night!), and Sunday was a balmy 18C with a cloudless sky full of sun. Although I like Thanksgiving to be a bit cooler, no one could really complain about how beautiful it was and how lucky we were for it to not be snowing (like it did last year)!
There are certain traditions my family insists on keeping to each year. Kimberly and I absolutely MUST tour the lake in the canoe. Kimberly, Dad, and I (and sometimes Mum) MUST go on the annual walk along the rail road tracks to the road which leads to the Old Lot, where Grandpa and his brothers started cottaging back in the late 50's. We MUST collect milkweed pods and open them so that their fluffy, feathery insides float on the wind across the lake or down the tracks. Kimberly MUST go about our property and beyond collecting brightly coloured leaves, wild flowers, and bulrushes to include in the center piece for the Thanksgiving meal. We MUST recognize and appreciate how lucky we are to have what we have and the ability to do any of the things listed here (and not listed here).
I am lucky to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Muskoka each and every year I live. I also know I am lucky to have been able to go there for every spring, summer, and fall for just as long. I am lucky. Many people are not nearly as lucky as me. My family laid out a scrumptious meal on Sunday evening. Mum made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turnip, salad, cooked carrots, beans, chicken for the meat eaters, and vegetarian parallel's for me. I made a concoction comprised of butternut squash, spaghetti squash, onions, and red peppers. For desert, apple pie. We are lucky. This past week, Kimberly participated in a poverty awareness event, aimed at highlighting the NEED to increase the funds provided to those on social assistance in Ontario (Hamilton) by no less than $100 per month. She was able to eat only the food included in the bag of groceries provided to her on Monday of last week. It was a meagerly-sized offering, containing many items low in nutrition, mainly fruits/vegetables and fiber, and high in sodium, preservatives, and disappointment. Participating in this project opened all of our eyes to the desperate need to do several things: 1) Increase social assistance funding to those who need it by no less than $100 ( a modest beginning in my opinion); 2) stalk the shelves of our food banks with more nutritious foods that will provide families, many of which have young growing children, with more adequate meals that will help them to grow and have healthy bodies like anyone else. After her week of participating in this poverty awareness-raising project, Kimberly may have appreciated our Thanksgiving meal on Sunday the most.
I am thankful for so many things this year. I am thankful for my family, who are always there for me when I need them, even when I seem to push them away or do not pay as much attention to them as I should. I am thankful for each and every one of my friends. I am not going to list them all here because they know who they are. Each of them has supported me through both great times and times that were less great this year. We got to celebrate many things together, and enjoy many of life's simple pleasures, such as nights out, coffee's, concerts, hockey games, work experiences, marriages, running goals and achievements, and so so so much more. I am thankful to live in Canada, where the weather isn't a daily threat to my well being, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, mudslides, forest fires, tsunami's, or volcanic eruptions are non-existent. I am thankful for my job, where I get to work with the most amazing and inspiring kids I'll ever hope to meet. I am thankful for running, and how it makes and keeps me healthy in mind, body, and soul. I am thankful for our cottage in Bala. I am thankful for all my past opportunities in life which lead me to this very moment, and I am thankful for the moments that are yet my future destinations. I am thankful for all the things that went wrong this year, and for all the lessons that came from them. I am just very thankful... for everything.
It is now 10:50 on Thanksgiving night. In one hour and ten minutes, Thanksgiving will be over. What I hope is that the awareness of good fortunes that dominates this day do not end with the setting and rising of the sun. I hope that when the clock turns to 12am Tuesday morning, we all continue to acknowledge our graces and blessings, and express these to those whom deserve them. To our families, our friends, our co-workers, or to a higher being. I hope that today is not the only day we express our thanks, just because that's what the day is called. We need to say thank you the whole year long, not just at particular times of the year. I am going to start doing more of this. Will you?
Let us rise up and be thankful,
for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,
and if we didn't learn a little,
at least we didn't get sick,
and if we got sick, at least we didn't die;
so, let us all be thankful.
- The Buddha
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