Unplugged

I have been unplugged the past few days.  I haven’t written a blog entry since November 24^th, I just got around to retreiving voice mail, am negligent in returning calls, and I haven’t answered e-mails either.  I don’t know why exactly.  Maybe it’s just that technology isn’t at the top of my list of things I am thankful for.  

Thanksgiving found our gratitude candle burning all day long and well into the night.  We chose to have a quiet, private day at home.  After the litany of medical appointments, home, with no place to go sounded like the right thing to do.  I think it was.

It was a day of remembrance and reflection for us.  We didn’t spend a lot of time with the generic, genetic unknown beings who prospered or at least endured over the centuries through famine, pestilence, plague, war, fire, flood, and all of the other disasters that pockmark the human condition.  We did gratefully acknowledge the genetic strand they carried forth that made it possible of us to have a life, let alone the rich and rewarding ones we are enjoying.  

Much more time was spent with the known, more recent bearers of our double helix.  I got Sherry’s maternal grandfather’s pocket watch out of her dresser drawer and removed it from the satiny pouch she had made for it after she had it cleaned at a local jewelry store.  It was a timepiece from another time that prompted Sherry to recount stories.  While these stories provided me with only a smattering of the complexity of who Sherry’s grandparent’s were—along with aunts, uncles, cousins—I was able to feel her gratitude along with her .  

I recalled many of the wonderful people who supported, encouraged, and strongly influenced me.  My immediate family came first to mind and Sherry heard stories that I hadn’t thought to tell her before.  I voiced a collage of events: croquet at the Kellers, mince meat at the Gaitins; laughter with the Ottos; exhuberance at the Hosfords; early morning chocolate chip cookies at the Morris home, and much, much more about the strands of joy, pathos, fears, challenge, and triumph that make up the fabric of my life.

Most of our time was spent on the immediate:  a time when we have been overwhelmed by the generous and sensitive outpouring of love we have received since the revelation of Sherry’s brain cancer shattered the world as we knew it; certainly as we anticipated our world would be.

This love was the glue as we picked up the pieces and stuck them back together again and began to embrace this new phase of our life.  

Thanksgiving was in the fullest.  Yet, one day could never contain our gratitude for the many splendored gifts that brought us to this day and give us hope for tomorrow.