Thursday, November 24, 2011

THANK AND GIVE


"We gather together, and ask the Lord's blessing ..."

The date for the holiday is on our calendars. We look forward to whatever we've planned, be it supper with friends and family or a fancy dinner at a restaurant.

What a gift we humans have been given -- hunger, appetite, the powerful need to eat, consume food, and fill our bellies. As important a gift, as the gift of day and night for working and resting -- our need for sleep -- the inner clock of living, pursuit and anticipation and gathering up and preparing and satisfying hunger.

Could it be that EATING runs the world?

Watching any of Mother Nature's creations -- creatures or flowers -- grass, trees, or spider, worm, bird, tiger, or whatever -- we see again and again the cycle of waking -- eating/feeding/being nourished -- and sleeping.

Ah yes, but also we humans can think and translate what we think into a language of action -- we can pray, laugh, cry, remember other days, and "thank."

What a gift of gifts -- thank implies God, wonderment and joy, an awareness of being alive and in charge of whatever you are. And from it, comes the desire to share.

Yes, thanking becomes the need to "give." Yes, we humans can give!

Can animals, birds, insects, or flowers do that? They can nurture, but can they pick up and hand over, bestow what is precious to something, anything, any other thing like themselves or different from themselves?

And that is what I am celebrating --
that we have day and night, the need to eat, to give, and thank.

5 comments:

Gennady said...

We don't have this holiday in Russia.

But I think I have somewhat related question bothering me:
What is the hidden sense of a father instructing his child whom to choose for killing in “To Kill a Mocking Bird” novell?

http://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/1007/what-is-the-hidden-sense-of-a-father-instructing-his-child-whom-to-choose-for-ki

Carola said...

Well said. I love the drawings. JC is totally recognizable, so that must be JD with the beard.

Linda Phillips said...

Wonderful blog. Wonderful thoughts. Wonderful drawings. Wonderful Em! Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Cullums!

Gennady said...

Emily, thanks for your answer in twitter.

Feeling me uneasy being unable to participate/maintain a conversation

JC is Jesus Christ? John Callum?
Who is JD?

Commenting "I'm a writer, writing things that haven't brought me fame..."
I think it is very difficult to find the audience. I remember I've read Joanne Rowling's writing was rejected by 12 publishers. If not mention other life stories of writers...

With SMS, tweets I'm afraid pppl are loosing their ability to read scripts.

Even I who used to read more than a lot in childhood (doctors advised my parents to forcefully deprive me from access to books), now cannot remember when I was reading the last time a book (unrelated to work necessities).

That is, writers should probably adjust their writings to stories in SMSs and tweets?

grammakaye said...

WELL said EM, late to find this one, but you must be told it has been well appreciated. :)