If you participate in Thanksgiving, it is impossible to keep it simple. So much food! You can, however, keep the gratitude going. A friend to bring some canned food to be donated to a food pantry to the Thanksgiving party she is going to. That’s all the hostess wants.
I’m sitting here in the midst of no silence, no solitude, no simplicity. How could it be otherwise on a Thanksgiving morning—Macy’s Day Parade, football, cooking pies, dressing the turkey, comings and goings? I’m fine with it, thank goodness. No one wants to know about my longings, nor do I want to bring them up. I understand all the benefits of family and holidays, and my life has had a marvelous fill of them.
If you participate in Thanksgiving, it is impossible to keep it simple. So much food! You can, however, keep the gratitude going. A friend to bring some canned food to be donated to a food pantry to the Thanksgiving party she is going to. That’s all the hostess wants.
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Thanksgiving is upon us and as you know, gratitude is foundational to my life, the gift my mom gave me and so many others. We can be thankful, grateful, however you want to phrase it, in personal prayer, but what about expressing it out in the world? Sharing gratitude changes us, changes others, changes the world. Arthur C. Brooks, in “Choose to Be Grateful. It Will Make You Happier” (NYT, November 21, 2015), offers some suggestions, but please, read the entire text. • Acting happy, regardless of feelings, coaxes one’s brain into processing positive emotions. • Choosing to focus on good things makes you feel better than focusing on bad things. • Choosing gratitude can also bring out the best in those around us. • Move to “exterior gratitude.” Write two short emails each morning to friends, family or colleagues, thanking them for what they do. • Be grateful for useless things. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/opinion/sunday/choose-to-be-grateful-it-will-make-you-happier.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share Today...this moment. Sun is shining after rain this morning when I went out to get the paper at 5:30. I have made brownies to take to Vermont to give to the men who are going to help load a U-Haul with my friend’s things. My husband is going to drive the U-Haul. The things will be stored in our barn for a month. Our friend’s husband died in October. We are sad but very grateful to help. Our friend is strong. That is how it is, living NOW, in the moment, this moment. Dear Martin Luther King, Jr., How do we do this? Could it just be that we all are all oppressors? “The non-violent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them a new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.” At one time or another most everyone says that they long for silence, solitude and simplicity, and I believe they mean it, even the most extroverted. It feels good to get away and be silent with nothing to do. But there is a group of us who have more than an occasionally longing for the 3Ss, who from time to time feel anxious in situations where there seems to be only noise, people and complexity. I’ve been noticing more of those circumstances lately. For example, yesterday getting my haircut. Don’t get me wrong, I love the person who has been cutting my hair for the past forty years, but there was so much chatter going on in the place. I’m writing about this because it may have been a watershed moment for me; I was extremely conscious not only of wanting quiet but of feeling anxious about it as I sat in the chair. I didn’t want to take this social setting is stride. I couldn’t wait to take some deep breaths when I got in the car. But then there is Paris! My thoughts and feelings pale when I consider what is going on in that city at this very moment. I am embarrassed to be writing such a self-centered blog. When in Italy I took photos of artists and their work, both current and from the annals of history. My premise is that we all need to feel purposeful, and that a component of purposefulness is sharing. This artists were sharing in a very public way. For me, taking the pictures and then writing this blog gives me a way to share, a purpose. It is not about being perfect, being Michelangelo or May Sarton, but of doing my best and putting it out there with the intention and hope that I will speak to someone and thus encourage them to create and sharing in their own way. Today I am posting pictures of street artists in Florence. By street, I literally mean artists on the street. I know nothing about these artists-- their personal life, their desires as artists, what they hope us to appreciate. Most likely some of their meaning has to do with earning money, but I have to believe there is something more in sharing their talent. No silence, solitude or simplicity since my last post, which is my excuse for not writing. Oh, I was alone on the ten-hour flight home. I slept, wrote emails, slept, read, slept, cleared out files on my computer, slept, watched the wonderful, 1957 movie, “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and slept some more. Then, for the weekend, I was steeped in community—preparing a luncheon for the family of our dear friend who passed away, and being involved in all the surrounding activities. Today is a regular day. After visiting a 93 year old friend I’ll have an afternoon of solitude. Deep breaths. Very grateful. Oh, but I’ve just decided to simplify by regenerating my http://lettingofstuff.blogspot.com/ I am in Rome, but before I entirely leave Florence I want to share some early morning photos from yesterday’s early morning walk. Seeing the sun rise over the mountains and the Arno, I was reminded of all those sunrise days at the cottage. Alas, for five years I set off with my LL Bean bag to settle in there for the winter; 2013-14 was my last season. Now a goodbye to Florence, with the hope that I shall return next spring. On Saturday I took a twelve hour bus tour to the Cinque Terra—the five towns along the coast northwest of Florence, now declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO . A two hour bus ride, lots of walking, several trains and a magnificent boat ride to travel from town to town. The views were spectacular on what was considered the last day of the season. Last tour from Florence, last day the boat taxi would run from town to town, and perhaps the last day of sun before the rainy months. Joining a tour offers more sociability than the solitary tours I create for myself. It can be pleasant to share travel stories with others, but for me, only in small doses. I understand this is a way for people to process their travels, but I don’t want or need to do much of that any more. My journal and this blog provide my means of sorting out what is important to me. As my photos attest, the spectacular scenery in the same category of the universally agreed upon beauty of fall foliage. I tried to spend most of my time, especially on the boat, breathing it in, feeling the moment, and not thinking—that continual challenge of mine to stay in the moment. I have a long way to go, but at least I sometimes remember NOT to think. This was one of those days. The other special experience was walking around the cemetery up the hill from the Monastery and Church of the Capuchin Friars. This was what I call a ‘living cemetery’, which means it is cared for and visited. A women was tending to each grave with fresh flowers. A man who had grown up in the area had come from Genoa to visit the grave of his grandfather. “I know so many people here now,” he told me. I haven’t disappeared. Yesterday I took an all day tour to the Cinque Terra. Today is Sunday which means that my favorite internet spot, the Gulfa library is closed. Since it is the only spot where I can download pictures for this blog, consider it a miracle that this has appears today on your screen. The good news, however, is that today is the first Sunday of the month, which means that museums all over Italy are free. I’ve already been to the Bargello where I spent ten minutes alone in the Quattrocento room with the Donatello sculptures. This afternoon I’m off to the Boboli Gardens to take some photographs for a friend. It’s a beautiful day to be out, not on the computer. Ciao! |
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