Grateful this Thanksgiving

October 10th, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I am feeling so grateful this year in particular. My mother joins us every year for our feast. It was great to have her here with us. We designed special cards for each other to express our gratitude. My daughters, mother, husband and myself hand wrote why we were grateful for each member of our family. Then we exchanged our handmade cards. We expressed our gratitude out loud during supper. It was so sweet to hear my girls talk about how lucky they felt to be in our family and to have each other.

We savoured our delicious turkey supper with carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts and cranberry jelly which my husband had so meticulously prepared. He is such an awesome cook!

As I drove my mother home, I was thankful for the sunshine and multi-coloured trees lining the 416 and Prince of Wales drive. My mother told me she learned a great deal from watching my daughters. My husband took our youngest out to buy clothing. Her birthday is next weekend and she has outgrown her clothing. My mother was meeting them at the store. She watched my daughter decide without hesitation which items of clothing she liked. My mother said she couldn't recall ever being that certain about anything. Growing up, she wasn't asked her opinion. If she had expressed it, chances are, her observations would not have been well received.

As we designed our cards, my daughter couldn't decide what to write and how to shape her paper. I had pumpkin-shaped papers, my husband had flags, my eldest daughter and mom both had hearts, so my youngest thought she might create stars. She didn't like the way her stars turned out. I offered to help but she pretended she didn't want to write cards. We accepted her decision to not make cards. She then came up with her own invention. She sculpted hearts out of red clay, she wrote, I love you!, on each one and placed a feather at the top, a different colour for each of us. My mother was impressed with her creativity and her freedom to express her gratitude her way.

I felt grateful that my daughters were having a good time, playing together, chasing the pets around the house and participating in this art activity. I also felt lucky to live in my home, a lovely family home, warm and spacious, loved and lived-in. I am thankful that my husband is such an excellent cook, that my mother is open to learning from her grand-daughters and sharing her insight with me. I am grateful that my daughters are older now. This means they are more independent and they are able to express their thoughts and feelings with words.

We have been through so much as a family and I am thrilled that we are all here in this moment, enjoying and loving one another. I am proud of my family with our two sweet pets. Our golden lab who is affectionate and excited to see us every day. Our sleepy, mellow cat who allows the girls to dress him up, carry him like a baby and make him dance in the most embarrassing ways (see photo of George with his sombrero on my FB page).

I have one more thing to be grateful for this year. Ever since I have posted about The Mommy Monologues on this blog and on FB, I have been inundated with stories from moms who have been through challenging pregnancies, births and traumatic experiences. They have survived and are sharing their stories to help other moms who are still battling. I am so grateful for their honesty and courage.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org