Thanksgivings new Meaning our Brothers Keeper Peace on Earth
THANKSGIVING IN 2008
Handel's Messiah plays from another room. A wreath is hung at the enrance to welcome the season and say, "All is well." We prepare the turkey togehter, in silence, the quiet togetherness of friendship, respect, and love more powerful than words.
We sprinkle traditional spices into our marinade. Bay leaf whole keeps us together. Dried sage from the mountains releases the aroma of respect to our ancestors the ancient protectors of the four directions.
The over warms the room like fire heats lava rocks for the lodge of others who gather to pay respect to an earth without borders, the Turtle Mother, Mother of us all. They burn sage and sweet smelling copal while fresh water hisses in steam from the rocks. Our oven releases splendid odors of fruit, spice, tradition, and memory, a line of honor from our fathers' fathers and our mothers' mothers.
This year, we add a glaze prepared from cranberries, raisins, oranges, pomegranate and olive oil to send the taste of a promise of peace and wonder to arouose our appetites for this wonderful day and the promise it holds. We do not sere hope, but we seal it deep within.
The table is set carefully, every dish in place, each fork, knife and spoon ready, poised, waiting for this most important gathering.
Another language is spoken softly by the newlyweds waiting, young and smiling, infused with the hope of youth, love that encites the groundwork, the flavor of anticipation of this day, cooked into the Peruvian dishes they bring to the waiting table. We share in their dreams of the future. Flavors of potato and rice from Earth herself savory and spicey and new for us, gives them memories of home.
The feast is presented as it may have been long ago when two cultures broke bread for the first time, when the Native Americans invited their guests to share a feast from the year's harvest, the feast called Harvest Home. The best offerings from the ground are still brought to the altar as if for the very first time.
Outside snow falls clean and refreshinig as the land sleeps in peace. We all stop to watch in our home, warm and toasty.
As we begin our meal we see differences as offerings for this celebration of gratitude, taking them in with every bite, so they become a part of our being.
We are noursihed, not just by food, but by respect and thanks, each to each. The love we felt in the kitchen becomes a pert of the preparation, as does the gentle snow.
Someone mentionsstocksare falling.Recessionis becomingDepression. I smile to my beloved. He understands my unspoken message. This is a time for hope, not depression.
Hope is coming in the form of a man soon to have his own Day of Thanks and Clebration. We call itInauguration Day. I know it is a day of new hope. Joy infuses the new beginning. War will soon be over. There is no more room for greed. Riches come from what lies within.
Now is a time for sharing, for we all are in need. Food no longer drops from the shelves into the trash.People must be fed. We must now heed and harken, we are our brother's keeper.
At home or afar, there is no longer a question of responsibility. For Thanksgiving to have any meaning in our lives, we must begin to do what is needed in the moment, what is right for us all. Never again can we afford to say, "That's not my problem." It is our problem and our responsibility, and we must join hands across the land, nation to nation, to be able to say on a quiet Christmas Day, Paz en la Tierra, Peace on Earth!
