Giving Thanks

Discussion in 'Blogs' started by Seacowboys, Nov 24, 2007.


  1. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I was feeling a little home-sick, being away in a foreign land on a job that seems to have no end in sight. Every time I do plan some time off, it seems like I have to cancel it and rush back to stomp out whatever fire is burning at the moment. I am a serious man in a serious business but sometimes the only sustaining force is my warped sense of humor. Being away so long and so often breeds cynicism. I am much too polite to use sarcasm unless provoked. I am a southern man and it is important for me to maintain a certain degree of decorum.
    I was feeling a little low in spirits because I was missing yet another holiday with my family and friends. I miss most of the holidays, so many in fact, that my darling wife and I have declared a spontaneous celebration that we named “Bug-Day” with the rules that it can involve presents or not, can be declared only upon getting out of bed, may involve going back to bed, but usually has music, good food, friends and family or not, wine, sometimes fireworks, or maybe just watching a good movie or reading aloud to each other from a good book. The fact that is has no calendar date and no set time-limit or duration makes it extremely convenient to bear the title of “favorite” holiday, but I still feel lonely when I am away at Thanksgiving or Christmas and if I have to miss a <st1:place w:st="on">Forth</st1:place> of July, I am not a nice person to be around.
    They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here; they seem seem thankful for much anyway. Jen, our field accountant, decided to cook a holiday feast for the seamonkeys. It was a grand feast and just as the turkey was falling under the carving knife, my phone rang and I had to skip back to the office and attend all the issues and arguments in the decision making process that couldn’t be postponed until morning; not even a turkey sandwich left when I got back around mid-night. Combine that with my rental car breaking down miles from my apartment and I would describe my mood as less than festive. I sat down at my computer and ended up reading a thread at survival monkey about remembering things that would date you; things that are no longer. I began my reply in somewhat of a nostalgic mood and as I added to the list, I began to smile in fondness at the memories and as suddenly, realized just exactly how much I had to be thankful for. I almost felt shame at thinking Thanksgiving was about food and fried and family; it isn’t about those things at all. It is about prayer.
    I can remember my grandpa coming home ith two buckets of draft beer on a stick balanced across his shoulders. The Kenedy assasination, nickle cracker jacks with a real tin whistle prize instead of a stupid paper tattoo, nickle cokes with a bag of Tom's peanuts, licorice barrels, schwinns biclcles, sears and robucks Allstate brand motor cycles, complete fishing kits (line bobber, sinker, and hook) that wound up on a flat piece of notched wood (you cut you own pole with the knife you always had in you pocket), my first .22 was when I was four but Dad kept the bolt in his glove box until Friday afternoons when he always brought home two boxes of shorts that we would shoot at tin cans with bad attitudes in the gulley behind the house that also served as the maze through the jungle to our fort, soapbox derby, getting your ass whipped for shooting your brother with a slingshot to see if it hurt (it did), dirt clod fights, king of the hill, red rover, pop the whip, kick the can, spin the bottle, lightning-bug jars, toad ranches, firecracker experiments involving everything from frogs to baby-food jars, shooting snakes, frog gigging, coon hunts, snipe hunts, dog-pile, eenie meanie minee moe...monarch caterpillers, pet snakes, baby raccoons and squirrels, having a pony or a horse, selling the boxer puppies to buy a new bicycle, mowing lawns and shoveling snow for money to go to the skating rink or slot-car track, sneaking into the pool hall, touching a breast through her sweater, stealing watermelons or peaches, picking strawberries on the halfs, shelling purple-hulls, picking walnuts, squirrel hunting season opening day, saving to buy a box of shot-shells for dove season, new school clothes, your good pants, shining Dad's combat boots and wondering when I would have my own, the deer rifle, gin rummy, trot-line fishing, cooking whiskey, building a shed or a box-kite, flying a kite and keeping extra balls of string to keep adding to it until it went out of sight, fast-ball, dodge ball, mumble the peg, grape-vine swings, riding trees down, the cave, those damned Murphys, switches and ashes, catalpha worms, camping in the back yard, camping in the woods, hiking, my first cup of coffee,
    king of the hill, snowball fights, igloos and snow forts, saying the blessing, kneeling beside your bed in prayer, good night kisses, my new best friend, my old best friend, cousins, christmas morning....I am sitting here alone in the Bahamas and almost made the mistake of feeling like I had nothing to celebrate for Thanks Giving...God please forgive me for all the many blessing I had nearly forgotten, Amen
     
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