Charlotte’s Thanks Giving 2015

Thank You My Jerry. There are no words. Only the swelling of my heart as I remember how you have held me and held me up during this long, odd year. Only the slipping of tears down my cheek when I think of how we have grown up together, are growing old together, keep growing together.

Thank You My Children. You stepped away from your lives to come surround my hospital bed with your tender caring love. You patted my paused hands, massaged my stopped-in-their-tracks feet, brushed my tumbled hair. You surrounded me again this week with your joyful celebration of restored life, our lovely shared life.

Thank You My Friends and My Family. Here and there, near and far, face-to-face and across cyberspace. You comfort me and challenge me and make me better in countless ways. You believe in me when I doubt myself and affirm me when I struggle. You know me well and love me anyway.

Thank You Mom and Dad. Thank you Grandmothers and Grandfathers. Thank you other Parents of My Life and Faith. You taught me what to do and how to be. You showed me what not to do and how not to be. As I have been teacher and example (both good and bad, helpful and foolish) to my own children. Thank you Grace that cushions all us teachers.

Thank You House. You cocooned me and provided sanctuary during this odd ostomic season. And yet, all through this time, your windows keep lifting my eyes and soul to the big bright wonder of the earth.

Thank You Laptop. Your little screen is also a window and a passage to this wider world. I sit on my sofa and still can participate in the large and small joys and sorrows of my human family. I type words and launch them into the wild and messy public conversation. I have a voice. I have something to say.

Thank You Farmers and Local Growers and Migrant Workers. Thank You Cows and Chickens and Salmon and Turkeys. Thank You Bakers and Cooks and Dish Washers. Thank You Recyclers and Garbage Collectors.

Thank You Doctors and Nurses and Anesthetists and Technicians. Your skills kept me alive this year and helped me to heal. Thank you hospitals and home health agencies and clinics in refugee camps. Thank you Medicare and Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Thank You Compassionate, Collaborative Citizens. Thank you for holding on to hope instead of giving into despair; for being light in our national gloom; for breaking down barriers and working to build bridges. Thank you for welcoming and including and empowering and respecting the other, the stranger, the least of these. (Some of you compassionate collaborative citizens are also elected officials; a special thanks to you. We are counting on you; hang in there.)

Thank you Holy Scripture. Your witness to God’s Story reminds us how our own stories are ever intertwined with one another’s and with yours. Thank You Book of Common Prayer. Your lovely liturgies weave words of gospel and grace. Shared prayers knit us together across nations and cultures and language. Thank you Mother Earth, Sacred Creation. Your witness to the wild and wonderful subtlety and majesty of the Creator evoke my awe and reverence.

Thank You CreatorRedeemerSustainer. You knit me together in my mother’s womb and continue to weave all my various bright and dull doings into a surprising tapestry of grace. You keep redeeming my foolishness, sustaining my hopefulness, re-creating my made-precious humanness. You keep speaking light into every darkness, beauty into every chaos and goodness into every day.

Thank You.