Thanksgiving 2020

We made our decision several weeks ago. At that time, the surge in the rate of infections from the coronavirus hadn’t begun. How quickly it changed.  Last week, the CDC was clear in its guidance:  don’t travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.  One of the settings in which the infection spreads rapidly is at home during family gatherings.  This Thanksgiving puts a great deal of stress on families … much more stress than the usual reasons why families don’t get along.

But as I said, we made our decision several weeks ago.  My partner and I will be safe at home together.  Because there’s just two of us, we’re not even going to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Instead, we’ll go to a Cantonese restaurant and pick-up some roast duck for our dinner.  (Trust me:  it’s a far better option than roasting a turkey at home which inevitably turns out to be too dry for our taste.)

Like many people who are making the same decision we made, we’ll miss sharing this Thanksgiving holiday with friends.  We usually have out of town guests staying with us for a few days.  Sometimes, local friends will join us for a meal in our home.  Other times, we go out to a favorite restaurant that has an incredible buffet.  None of that will happen this year.

But here’s what will happen:  we’ll focus on being grateful for the lives we have.  This year hasn’t been easy.  There’s been ups and downs, including knowing people who have been sick because of COVID 19 and some who have died.  At one point, we thought we had been exposed so we scheduled multiple tests and quarantined for two weeks.  We were lucky. All the tests came back negative.  My point is this:  despite the ups and downs, we are thankful for the gift of life itself and for having friends and loved ones who check on us via email, phone calls, and even old-fashioned notes by mail.  We are safe and can make choices to stay that way. And we are truly thankful.

Our year has been far easier than those who marked the first Thanksgiving.  Remember that over half of the pilgrims died during their first winter after landing at Plymouth Rock.  Of course, the indigenous people who lost their land faired much worse as entire tribes were killed off by those early settlers.  Even faced with that harshness, they still gave thanks for being alive. Truly, there’s no reason for us not to be thankful this year.

Perhaps more than any other year, this Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what we do have. Sure, there are things we wish we had.  But this holiday is not about having perfect lives.  Instead, it is an opportunity to experience gratitude for the blessings we experience right now in life.  Sometimes, we appreciate life’s blessings more when we are prevented from having the perfect life of which we dreamed.

As I mark this Thanksgiving holiday, I am thankful for my life just as it is.  In expressing that gratitude, I recall words of the former U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld: “For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes.”

Have a safe, happy, and blessed Thanksgiving.

Picture by Hudsoncrafted Pixabay.com