Memories: Gratitude and Thankfulness Before Thanksgiving!

Growing up in Denmark, there was no such thing as Thanksgiving. I might have been peripherally aware that the holiday existed, simply because both my parents lived in the US for many years. But that was about it.

I do vaguely remember there being some kind of fall festival that included eating roast goose for dinner, although I also remember my mother putting a nix on it "because goose is too fattening."

But then again, my mother thought anything more substantial than a cracker and an olive was too fattening...

So my official introduction to Thanksgiving happened when I arrived in Texas at age 20. I remember it being with my foreign student "host family," and there were at least 20 people there. Didn't have much of a "family feel" to it... but I was grateful for the food!

To be honest, I don't really remember any Danish holidays centered on gratefulness and giving thanks. Which isn't to say that we didn't have gratitude. It just wasn't a "formal" thing.

Over my 40-odd years of living in the US, I have grown quite fond of Thanksgiving... and not just for the food! I try to actually remember and be mindful of "the reason for the season" although not so much in the historical sense as in the general sense of gratefulness.

I might moan and groan a lot about the trials and tribulations of modern life, but there is also much to be grateful for. And that's worth observing.

Thanksgiving with my former in-laws was often a bit of a circus... perhaps because not everyone really wanted to be there so there was often a bit of tension in the air.

I made it my tradition to take a long walk after the meal, just to clear my head... and to find a bit of peace in the unrest. Mostly, I just wanted to enjoy the silence that went with Thanksgiving Day. The noticeable thing was that the sound of commerce that was always a background hum would all but stop on this one day.

Of course, this was in the early 1980s, before endlessly extended shopping, even on Thursday, had become normal.

I would just walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the stillness.

Although the world has become considerably noisier since then, I still pause for a moment of gratitude for the relative stillness of Thanksgiving.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Created at 2023-11-23 01:10 PDT
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