Our brief span of normal temperatures are over. Temperatures were slightly above normal, actually, highs in the low forties F. We were so used to it being twenty degrees below normal that it seemed like a heat wave. Looks like it is going back into the cold.
We are inured and it is okay. It helps one learn acceptance. We used the two relatively warm days to finish the chicken coop. Well I should say Jamie did. She did most of the work. My part begins. I need to move the feeders, waterer and most importantly the chickens. I may move the chickens tonight if it works out. They need to be moved at night when I can just pick them off their roost. I need to do it as I am their familiar one. They panic if they don't know you. Then we have to move the two feed cans from the barn. They weigh between 150 and 200 pounds when full. Feed has to be kept in cans, we use galvanized garbage cans, the mice will have holes chewed in the feed sacks in a very short time. In fact we need to keep the empty sacks in a can too. When I first started raising chickens I just folded the empty sacks up and put them on a shelf. I found them mouse chewed when I wanted to reuse them.
We are undergoing Thanksgiving planning. Jamie has the preparations honed down to a 'T'. She has learned how to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time so that her whole holiday isn't taken up with cooking. She galantines the turkey; that is she takes it off the bones and rolls it up with the dressing inside, in the freezer it goes. She has discovered how to prepare and then freeze ahead of time; rutabagas, cranberries, even mashed potatoes. I am forgetting a couple things, and then she just needs to roast the turkey and heat up the other stuff. Pies are baked the day before. It is still a tremendous amount of work but she is able to spread it out over several days.
This will be the first Thanksgiving in many years when all my children will be present. Noah has been in California pursuing an acting career. I have six children; Laura [53], Stuart [51], Matt [49], Andrew [46], Noah [36], and Naomi [35]. We will gather here, with their spouses and children, and have a great celebration. I think we will have eighteen in all.
I love Thanksgiving. The idea is so much bigger than the holiday. In my personal life I have found that the two things that bring me the most peace are forgiveness and thanks giving. When ever I am down, troubled, ill at ease, in any way not happy, if I ask myself, "What am I not being thankful for?" and/or "Who haven't I forgiven?" I will see the pathway towards peace. Failure to forgive is like a sack of stones weighing down our consciousness. Failure in thankfulness is being blind to our fortune.
It takes some people a long time to understand forgiveness. They stubbornly hang onto the idea that forgiveness is for the other. They hope that, not forgiving, will bring justice. They have yet to realize forgiveness is strength. It doesn't make one more vulnerable. Forgiveness frees the mind and paves the way for oneness. Refusing to forgive, self or other, causes a heaviness of spirit that often leads to depression. If there was one word to describe the path towards love and awareness it would be forgiveness.
In our culture we have learned to focus on what we don't have. It is a keystone of materialism. It is easy for folks to pine for what they see as a lack and miss out on all the great thing around them. This holiday reminds us of all the things we have to be thankful for. Let's not wait for Thanksgiving to be thankful. Let's remember it always. Next time things are not quite perfect let's turn on our thankfulness and bask in the warm glow.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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