Thanksgivukkah
Good morning and a happy Thanksgivukkah to you all! Yep, this year, Thanksgiving and Chanukah fall at the same time. Chanukah is weirdly early this year, and it's causing all sorts of timey-wimey dysfunction for me. It means I am both thankful and reflective at the same time.
Giving thanks
I am thankful for my family, my beloved circle of close friends, my extended family and friends across the country and even around the world at this point. I am grateful for my Sophie and Ezekiel, my four-footed sources of joy, exasperation and cuddles. I am thankful for the brains, skills and courage that have given me the life I have, and I'm grateful for the rights and freedoms provided by this country that allow me to have that life at all. I am grateful for my health, for love, for sweet potatoes, for hot chocolate laced with hazelnut, for my mother's brisket recipe, for books and balcony gardening (and the vegetations begotten of same), for art and travel and long walks in pretty places. For, you know, life.
Rededication
A friend over on Facebook, who is a teacher, wrote the following a couple of days ago:
I would like to propose "The Eight Days of Re-dedication". Hanukkah is about the re-dedication of the Holy Temple after it was defiled by the Greeks. Thanksgiving is about being grateful for all the wonderful things in our lives.
I don't know about you but I am often guilty of not dedicating enough time, energy, resources, thought to the people, interests, causes or places that make me the most grateful. I would like to propose that for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah we each promise to re-dedicate ourselves to something for which we are grateful but that we know we don't value quite enough right now. I will be posting my eight areas of re-dedication during Hanukkah.
Last night she wrote: Happy first night of Hanukkah. Tonight I rededicate myself to making staying in touch with my family a priority. Three time zones and busy lives are no excuse.
I couldn't say it better myself. With my brother, sister-in-law and niece, I am pretty good about it. With newly reconnected family, I now have a wider circle to keep in touch with regularly, so my first pledge of rededication for the holiday is to stay in touch with the family I thought I'd lost forever.
And now I must dedicate myself to starting my day and cooking for today's feast. My goodness, I have work to do!
To everyone, I say, "Good Gobbletov!"
Giving thanks
I am thankful for my family, my beloved circle of close friends, my extended family and friends across the country and even around the world at this point. I am grateful for my Sophie and Ezekiel, my four-footed sources of joy, exasperation and cuddles. I am thankful for the brains, skills and courage that have given me the life I have, and I'm grateful for the rights and freedoms provided by this country that allow me to have that life at all. I am grateful for my health, for love, for sweet potatoes, for hot chocolate laced with hazelnut, for my mother's brisket recipe, for books and balcony gardening (and the vegetations begotten of same), for art and travel and long walks in pretty places. For, you know, life.
Rededication
A friend over on Facebook, who is a teacher, wrote the following a couple of days ago:
I would like to propose "The Eight Days of Re-dedication". Hanukkah is about the re-dedication of the Holy Temple after it was defiled by the Greeks. Thanksgiving is about being grateful for all the wonderful things in our lives.
I don't know about you but I am often guilty of not dedicating enough time, energy, resources, thought to the people, interests, causes or places that make me the most grateful. I would like to propose that for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah we each promise to re-dedicate ourselves to something for which we are grateful but that we know we don't value quite enough right now. I will be posting my eight areas of re-dedication during Hanukkah.
Last night she wrote: Happy first night of Hanukkah. Tonight I rededicate myself to making staying in touch with my family a priority. Three time zones and busy lives are no excuse.
I couldn't say it better myself. With my brother, sister-in-law and niece, I am pretty good about it. With newly reconnected family, I now have a wider circle to keep in touch with regularly, so my first pledge of rededication for the holiday is to stay in touch with the family I thought I'd lost forever.
And now I must dedicate myself to starting my day and cooking for today's feast. My goodness, I have work to do!
To everyone, I say, "Good Gobbletov!"