I don't know that I could let the celebration past with out a Thanksgiving blog post. This past year I've had many friends with some of their highest highs and others with some of their lowest lows. A year always brings changes. We encounter the passing on of significant relationships and the loss that it brings. Losses are often our most difficult circumstances to be grateful for in life. We don't really want to see the loss of someone we love or something we've relied on. Our love wants to hang on. But life moves. It never really repeats or stays the same. Others had their first child, started their first careers, moved into their first homes, got married, and we all celebrated. We easily celebrate positive milestones and find gratitude a natural response.
I think that's why we have traditions. It's our way to hang on to the familiar in the face of ongoing change. They help us to pass on our treasured life experiences to the next generation. We can't ever recreate moments, but we can watch our kids experience the joys that we discovered as kids and make memories that build upon the ones that we've had.
This year, I made two foods that were traditions from my childhood: Granny's Cornbread Stuffing and Grandma's Carmel Pie. Obviously my first attempt so not nearly as good as the original makers. However with each bite comes a flood of memories making the taste all the more satisfying. As I was making the carmel for the pie my mind filled with the vantage of my childhood eyes standing next to my 6' 2" Grandma as she made it on her old stove. I watched her stir and transform sugar and flour into a tasty treat. (I still don't know how she made the Meringue with the little swirls, but I'll figure that out next time). As I made the Cornbread stuffing, with each ingredient I could picture all the Cotton ladies lined up in Granny's kitchen talking and cooking. It's best if made over two days and meant to be made slowly. I think it's really as much about the process as it is the stuffing.
Now that I've made them both, the next step is to teach my kids to do the same. They may never know the sights, sounds and smells of my Grandmother's kitchens, but they can still experience the love, warmth, security, and sense of family that each produced. It's way more than a shared meal can contain and it takes more than one experience to pass it on. It's embodied in the traditions, but not really contained by them. They provide a way to pass love on.
So I'm deeply grateful for family traditions this Thanksgiving and all th love they contain. I'm blessed beyond words. Gratitude seems the only appropriate response, and yet doesn't seem to convey all the emotion bubbling up in my heart. Thanks for the memories and thanks for the opportunities to create them for my children. May each of us cherish the moments in our lives, both painful and pleasant, for all that they do to increase our capacity to love. Take the time to pass on a huge, heaping dose of love to all those around you.
