[Oe List ...] Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life: HappyThanksgiving

[Lynda Cock]

Paula's Jawale Thanksgiving story reminds me of our Indonesia story when
Doris (Rettig) Conway and I worked so hard so hard to have a traditional
Thanksgiving feast.  We shopped at the US Commissary for turkey, dressing,
and pumpkin pie ingredients.  
We also had green beans with mushroom soup and fried onion topping and
cranberry sauce.  Shortly after the food was on the plates, a couple of the
young men left the table and returned with the red hot sauce and some left
over rice to give our "bland" meal a little zip.  We were a bit
crest-fallen, but it left more for us to feast on the next day.  
 
Lynda 
  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Paula Philbrook
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 8:50 AM
To: OE DIALOGUE
Subject: [Oe List ...] Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life:
HappyThanksgiving


Thank you Sandra.
 
I have always love the celebration of Thanksgiving!  From waking at 4 am to
start 10 birds in the first floor kitchen at 4750 to a late night
celebration in Jawale with Dennis and Amy Jennings.  (We had a roll and a
slice of canned ham and we sang "Now thank we all our God" with great
gusto")  
 
This past Saturday, I sat with Hannah (17), Leah (15), Lela (25) and Marge
(82).  We were planning Thanksgiving over breakfast.
Eight years ago we began having our feast on Friday.  It gave me an extra
day to prepare and allowed us to invite people to join us who could not
attend on Thursday.  So we called it Alternative Thanksgiving.  This year,
they made an invitation only facebook event to invite everyone.  
 
The menu-Abundance without going over board- Our image a tablespoon of
everything.  
The space-do we have enough chairs-where can we set up the appetizers?
The decor-who will do the center piece and iron the gold napkins?
The dialogue-our tradition has been to begin with each person sharing a
thanksgving from the past year and the Mayflower Compact with ORID.  As we
planned the discussion we decided to ask  "If you were boarding a boat
today: Who would you want to have in your boat? What would you be leaving
behind or moving away from?  Where would you be headed or moving toward? 
 
I have been living with this quote: 
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough,
and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to
clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger
into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie

Let gratitude unlock life's fullness for you this year.

Paula

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