Grace, Blessing, Thanks and Giving

This Thanksgiving I am especially thankful for all of you, and I am grateful for having a day of gratitude, a day of rest from the challenges, a day to remember and say thank you.

Each year, as a mealtime grace, I read a passage from an article by Anne Lamott (Traveling Mercies, Grace Eventually, Help, Thanks, Wow, and most recently Hallelujah Anyway) called “Counting Our Blessings”.

At Thanksgiving, she says, someone always manages to say grace:

I think we’re in it for the pause, the quiet thanks for love and for our blessings before the shoveling begins. For a minute, our stations are tuned to a broader, richer radius. We’re acknowledging that this food did not just magically appear: Someone grew it, ground it, bought it, baked it. Wow.

We say thank you for the miracle that we have stuck together all these years, in spite of it all; that we have each other’s backs, and hilarious companionship…We pray to be mindful of the needs of others. We savor these moments out of time, when we are conscious of love’s presence, of Someone’s great and abiding generosity to our dear and motley family, these holy moments of gratitude. And that is grace.

Happy grace-filled Thanksgiving.