Thanksgiving, The Little Beast Dog and Gratitude

Zeta Bear went to the country for Thanksgiving -- and enjoyed herself as a farm dog! We love it out there at my sister's. Fresh eggs from the neighbors, burning your own trash, drinking as soon as you get up -- because if you don't start first thing "you can't say you've been drinking all day!" Just kiddin' -- sorta...

...this from someone clean and sober nineteen years today.

Back to Zeta. She was POOPED when she got home -- and was sick last night-- possibly because some unsuspecting (my sister) soul thought no poor dog should go without table scraps on Thanksgiving, but, farm dog in other ways, Zeta does NOT have an iron stomach. She gets sick when she eats grown up dog food!

I was so worried I was surprised I was so worried. I don't worry much. I worried through church, and was only feeling better about her by the time we got home and I felt her cool nose rub against me as she whizzed by in a black blur -- her normal self.

Last night she slept right next to me, sometimes betwixt the SB and me, which is not allowed! No pets betwixt the humans --- but she was sick! So... I put her on my other side. :-) I held her close and she woke us up about four times and we shooed her out of doors to be ill whilst we stood by for comfort.

Are we pathetic? Yes, we'd do the same for the kids when they were small, they slept with us when they were ill and we shooed them into the back yard when they needed to throw up.

Alright back to the weekend. We had a great Thanksgiving -- my brother was very genuinely happy to get a Longhorn Polo and new mp3 player -- which we presented to him with much glee. No special occasion, just because we felt like it. The turkeys -- all THREE of them, were fried and delicious. We ate, as is customary, plenty of stuff that was not good for us, and when we were done, ate some more and bought some more on the way home!

What a sense of gratitude I felt this year. My sister in law commented that it all felt good and she didn't know why. I said, "not to minimize your current feelings, or the grief any of us might be feeling, but I bet it feels good this year simply because it is NOT last year."

We were all still acutely grieving the loss of her son and also my mother last year. We still do, but we are moving forward. It was wonderful to see my brother and his wife smile -- to hug and touch the rest of us on purpose.

Don't get me wrong -- we miss my mother and nephew, painfully at times ... and they are not just a part of our past certainly, but are now, in a new way, a part of our future.

I was more aware this year of what a lavish life we lead as Americans. Truth is, I feel we forget too often that our lives are already lavish. Even those of us who sometimes struggle lead quite lavish lives in comparison to those in constant poverty.

Let's start with the beds in which we sleep, that are clean, comfortable and covered. Next, we usually have a choice about what to eat for breakfast. A choice! Then, many of us get into overpriced lavish cars that we've been able to purchase, or, for that matter, we have public transportation to get us where we need to go, so that we can continue to earn the money that gets us what we want.

Don't get me wrong! I learned today in the lesson at church that desire is God's way of notifying you of which direction to go toward for your next blessing! That's one way of looking at it. Greed is a different matter altogether.

So, "What do you have that someone else would pay $1 million for?"

We posed that question from time to time this weekend.

Here are some answers I got:

"My dimples and smile."
"My relationship."
"My eyesight."

...and that's just a start.

Happy Thanksgiving!