A Walk in the Woods on Thanksgiving

Nothing about my Thanksgiving turned out as I'd planned. We made plans. Plans were broken. We made plans again. Plans were broken. Our plan became no plan. I think it was the best plan of all.

We grabbed the dog and hopped on the trail. The great thing about this particular spot is that within a few minutes you can be standing on the edge of a bluff with a mile-wide view.

Though this wasn't the first Thanksgiving I'd spent without my parents, it was one of the few and it did feel a little strange.  Though both of my grandparents are now gone, I still imagine our holiday rituals. We sat around their big dining room table with the grandfather clock chiming in front of me, my grandpa sitting to my left making little jokes, my grandma rushing things out to the table and my dad saying a simple prayer.

Our family traditions mostly revolved around food. My new family traditions with my husband and step-kiddos also revolve around food. That grandfather clock now sits in my living room offering me the chimes of my childhood.

Variety is the spice of life but routine and ritual is what grounds us. We looked out over our city with the frozen marsh below us, the rocky bluffs all around us and a train rumbled by down below.

I wondered if this hike would become a tradition and hoped it would. 

We tromped around on the cold ground, my hands went numb taking pictures, it was invigorating. 

Hamlet raced ahead and then looked back, raced ahead and then looked back.

I thought about the "Grace" photograph with the old man praying over a loaf of bread that hung over my grandparents' table. Eric Enstrom, the photographer, said he liked the photograph because "this man doesn't have much of earthly goods, but he has more than most people because he has a thankful heart." 

I felt grateful that we were heading  home to a warm house with a turkey in the oven and our grandfather clock chiming away in the corner.

For each new morning with its light.

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson-'Thanksgiving'

Family Rituals and Tula's First Birthday

A few weeks ago my family gathered to celebrate my little niece's birthday.  I had just attended a Servant Leadership class on the power of ritual.  We discussed both personal and cultural rituals; public, private, or secret rituals, spontaneous or arranged and rituals that arise from the stages and ages of life.  So here we were, my little family, celebrating the birthday of a granddaughter, a daughter, a cousin, a niece...And while the weather wasn't great and my husband was sick and couldn't join us until later, what mattered was that we all sat down and ate dinner together that night.

We started the celebration early with a gathering at our house the night before.

the birthday gal with momma and papa.

Tula and Grandpa Jim

kissing my niece, one of my fave things to do.

with Grandma Kat and Papa Bob

with cousin Owen at the birthday party

I think she enjoyed herself.

we stretched our legs, went on a walk and breathed in some of that chilly Spring air.

devising ways to scale the church wall.

Darla dog

cousin time.

I had a fun time at my birthday party.  Bye everybody.

From beginning to end

the rituals of our lives shape each hour,

day, and year.

Everyone leads a ritualized life:

Rituals are repeated patterns of meaningful acts.

If you are mindful of your actions, you

will see the ritual patterns,

If you see the patterns, you may

understand them.

If you understand them, you may enrich

them.

In this way, the habits of a lifetime

become sacred.

--

Servant Leadership, Viterbo University