I wasn’t sure how I’d feel today! It’s November 24th … it’s my mother’s birthday … and I miss her.
The thing is, it’s also one of my favorite holidays … it’s the last Thursday in November and that can only mean one thing! We celebrate Thanksgiving Day in accordance with President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation {October 3, 1863}. In contrast, in England, there is Harvest Festival, where we give thanks for a bountiful harvest, which is traditionally celebrated on the closest Sunday to the harvest moon, so the date can vary in September or early October.
Sometimes I feel like I have one foot in the UK and the other in the US, straddling the massive body of water we call the Atlantic Ocean. Lol! That idea brings a smile. Me as some kind of enormous human bridge? Interesting vision to say the least. Haha!
One country owns my birthright and the other my allegiance through naturalization. While I reside in one place, I travel to the other frequently to visit my Dad {and my home away from home} in England.
Today I am especially thinking of my family. We’re all so scattered these days aren’t we? It’s not easy to be miles away from loved ones … and this Thanksgiving our immediate family here in the US is literally strewn from coast to coast, so I’m giving thanks for modern communications! Yes, ones that I often denounce during the inevitable technology challenges!
In my Dad’s case, our daily telephone call closes the gap, connects our lives and magically transfers me into his home and he into ours, while calls, texts and photo-sharing between family members here in the US, bring us closer. What a blessing!
Since I raised the thought of one proverbial foot on either shore of the Atlantic, you’re probably wondering if I feel torn asunder at times, so I explored that thought and am surprised to discover I really don’t! Truth is, I’m grateful beyond measure … and I count myself fortunate and privileged to experience the best of both worlds.
Mindset makes all the difference! I really don’t view myself as torn between the two countries miles apart. Instead as I imagine straddling the ocean with a foot on each shore, I become the virtual bridge that closes the gap and unites the worlds … haha … at least in my mind, and the mind is amazingly powerful. It’s all in the way we view things isn’t it? Perspective is everything!
As I said I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about today. It’s new territory … my mother’s birthday falling on Thanksgiving Day. It’s happened before of course while she was still with us, but now she’s gone. That changes things if you see what I mean.
On the one hand, Thanksgiving Day is for giving joyful thanks for our many blessings, but on the other hand, it’s Mum’s birthday and I miss her with all my heart. I want to hug her and wish her happy birthday. I feel a flood of sadness that she’s gone.
I wonder how I reconcile the conflicting emotions of joy and sadness?
Of course! The answer comes to me in a flash! I bridge the gap. I close the divide with gratitude. Gratitude that Mum is in heaven. That she no longer suffers from dementia, but rejoices with her heavenly family. I know she’s happy … I feel it deep down in my soul. How thankful I am to have been blessed with such a loving mother and to have celebrated so many birthdays with her including her 95th!!! My cup overflows knowing she’s with our Lord and Savior. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and joy fills my heart. I’m so thankful.
The bridge is built. The conflicting emotions reconciled.
Today is going to be a great day! This is the day the Lord has made so I will rejoice and be glad in it. I’m giving joyful thanks for an abundance of blessings … that I still have my Dad … for all my amazing family, for good health, for wonderful friends, for freedom, for the beauty of nature, for our Shaklee business and for today’s bountiful harvest.
And I’m also praying for this great nation that we the American people would be as one heart and one voice.
Above all, I’m giving joyful thanks to my Father in Heaven … for His son … the way, the truth and the life. Grateful for the light of God’s countenance, revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
“And giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light” Colossians 1:12
“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.”
Abraham Lincoln ~ From Thanksgiving Proclamation