Happy Thanksgiving! I hope all my Canadian friends are enjoying this holiday Monday, and I hope you all – Canadian and beyond! – have had a beautiful weekend filled with delicious food and lots of love. I have so very much to be thankful for, not least of which was the Friday night with my parents. Due to my son’s work schedule, we headed up to visit on Friday, when my mom made an enormous dinner with three pies, and a chocolate cake for me, her spoiled daughter who does not like pie. We had a great night with lots of food, wine, and raucous dice games.
Last Monday one of my students brought up the quote “Gratitude is the first step to joy,” and I have been meditating on that all week. I have so much to be grateful for, the number one of which is my family; sometimes I just feel like my heart is going to explode thinking of it. Health, of course, is also a great source of gratitude. At my age, I am seeing more and more friends and acquaintances with health issues, both minor and, sadly, severe. One of my favourite Peloton instructors has a motivational phrase that goes along the lines of I woke up this morning, I put my feet on the ground, not everyone has that privilege. I am starting to completely understand why, when you talk to older people, the conversation veers towards all their friends who are sick and/or dead. Not to be grim, but the older we get the more of that we see, and so I am grateful, so very grateful, for my good health. I woke up this morning! I put my feet on the ground!
Good health is, of course, a broad umbrella. I have found that, with my kids going maskless most of the time, we are all like toddlers on their first foray into day care. Sniffles abound! But this is a minor complaint. In general, our health is good, and I hope tomorrow’s mammogram will confirm that as well.
It is, I will admit, that time in my cycle when my emotions are bigger and for me that means my feelings of gratitude for the mundane cannot be contained. But what better day to list such things than Thanksgiving?
Food, Glorious Food
Supply chain issues and my weird obsession with lemon juice and popcorn notwithstanding, isn’t it incredible that we can go into a grocery store at any time and purchase almost anything? Sure, prices are through the roof and yes, sriracha is still unavailable, but just think of the bounty and variety there for the taking. When I was a kid, the fruit that was available to me in the winter was restricted to bananas and apples, with the occasional bunch of green grapes and mandarin oranges at Christmas. Vegetables were largely frozen or canned, and that was that. Now look at the produce section. Strawberries! Available any time of the year! Somewhere in the world, there is a farmer who is growing strawberries, and Mother Nature is providing sunshine and rain for those strawberries, and people are picking them, and then people transport them, and then the lovely people at Superstore unload them into beautiful displays. So many factors go into our fruit and vegetables, and if I let myself think about it for just a moment, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude.
Now think of all the ways we can prepare food. A mere fifteen or twenty years ago, if I wanted to make a dish I would have to find a recipe in a cookbook, and figure things out. Now there are multitudes of recipes, for free, right in the literal palm of my hand, even the most obscure. A world of flavour at our disposal! Not that I’m great at following recipes, mind you, but inspiration has to come from somewhere.
Home, Sweet and Warm and With Running Water, Home
Maybe this is due to my son’s recent backcountry camping trip, but good lord, I am grateful for clean water. Isn’t it amazing that we can turn a tap and there is clean, safe water? Not only that but we can choose the temperature and it just HAPPENS. There is a water pipe system in place, a sewage system in place, there are people who treat water, and there are scientists who figured out what we need to do to have safe water, and here we are. Every shower and glass of water and load of laundry is a miracle of engineering and technology.
Not only is water heated with absolutely no effort from me except by turning the tap a certain way, but the house is also warm and snug. There’s no fire to stoke. There’s no fuel to haul. I touch the thermostat and the temperature adjusts. Isn’t that incredible? And if it doesn’t, I call Tony the Hot Plumber Who I Have a Bit of a Crush On, and he comes and fixes it. Within the DAY.
Baby You Can Drive My Car
A little while back, Elisabeth (HI ELISABETH) mentioned how grateful she was for being able to drive, and I see her, and raise her. Yes, I am incredibly grateful to a) have learned to drive as a mere 16-year-old, b) have a reliable vehicle, and c) be able to afford to put gas in the car. There are many places where women cannot drive, and there are many who cannot afford a vehicle or gasoline. But more than that I am grateful to have two children who drive. Specifically, I am so grateful my son can drive himself to wrestling practice in the evenings so that two evenings a week I don’t have to keep my regular clothes on until 8:30, at which point I can finally don my jammies and go to bed.
The Awesome Power of Nature
A few years ago, my friend Taryn (HI TARYN) and I were hiking in the mountains when we came across a rushing stream, at which point Taryn said in a booming, PBS-nature-special-voice, “BEHOLD! THE AWESOME POWER OF NATURE!” This was a running joke between her and her husband, and when she shared it with me I started thinking of it every time I saw something pretty in nature. I thought of it every day this week as I walked or ran, with the leaves turning and the skies so blue. Isn’t it amazing? Crunchy leaves underneath our feet, indicating that the trees are preparing for their wintering, just as I am, by digging out my boots and sweaters.
Our Community, Big and Small
I absolutely love the community I live in. I can walk to any number of amenities – grateful for those amenities! – and the people here are generally wonderful. I love my friends, who are all so special in different ways, and I love our blogging community. When I started this blog in 2008, I was part of a lovely little community of bloggers, only one of whom – HI ALLISON – is still blogging today. The blogging world changed for a while – remember sponsored content? – but then a few years ago, I started to belong to a new community. This community strengthened during the pandemic, and I am so grateful for all of you.
If you’re reading this, yes! I am talking to you. I am grateful for YOU. Thank you for being here.
Weekly Reading
Barreling Forward. We all know I really enjoy short stories, and I enjoyed this collection by a new Canadian author. I feel like she might be from Newfoundland, her stories have that flavour, if you know what I mean. If you know, you know.
Lessons in Chemistry. I had heard good things about this and it did not disappoint! It was truly a delight to read BUT…I started it at that time in my cycle when my always-simmering rage about our patriarchal society and institutionalized misogyny boils over. Reading the first fifty pages, with the gross and sexist treatment of the lovely, brilliant scientist main character, my rage boiled all over the stove and left burned on crusts, almost impossible to scrub off. Happily, before I gave up on it and threw it across the room, a dog was introduced as a main character and I was charmed enough to keep reading. It’s a wonderful book that is ultimately about the power of women and the importance of lifting each other up. Oh, and that dogs are smart and wonderful.
This Will All Be Over Soon. I heard about this on a podcast and I thought it sounded interesting enough: it is a memoir by SNL’s Cecily Strong, about mourning the loss of her cousin and then experiencing the early days of the pandemic. The podcast mentioned it was written in diary form, but it reads like her actual diary, which is to say from a writing point of view, it is not great, Bob. It’s not terrible, and it’s a fast read, but I didn’t find it to be particularly compelling or interesting. It did, however, make me feel hopeful as it reminded me just how bleak and scary those early pandemic days were. Over the past ten months or so, almost everyone I know has been boosted and also has had Covid, as have I on both counts, and so I kind of forgot just how deadly and terrifying the virus was back in 2020. It was also interesting to read about experiencing Covid in NYC, which was a different experience, I think, from the rest of the continent. On the whole though, I did not enjoy this.
Fun fact about today’s title: I cannot say the words “first step” without mentally singing “ask her out and treat her like a layyyydayyyy.” It’s impossible! Sometimes I am able to stop there, but mostly my mind will go all the way through the old Eddie Rabbit song. It’s fun to be me! There’s always music. Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. xo
Happy Thanksgiving!
Beth has the day off (for Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day) and North doesn’t, so we’re going out to lunch. I’m always thankful for a date opportunity.
Oh, how nice! Enjoy your date!
“Gratitude is the first step to joy” is something worth meditating on. Thanks for sharing that idea here. I like all the things for which you are grateful, food, clean water, relatively good health, pretty walks in the woods– and the sense of community I find in blogland. Oddly enough over the weekend I was musing, in a bummed way, about all the personal bloggers who are no more. Still there are lots of new-to-me ones, so I shall be grateful for that.
I was thinking about this – I am on social media with a lot of the “old school” bloggers who are no longer blogging, but it’s not really the same, is it? I miss them!
Happy Thanksgiving! Love this post. Yes, I feel like life in general has gotten an upgrade from when I was young- not that I felt deprived in any way- but now we have the year-round variety of fruit as you mentioned, plus huge TVs with zillions of channels, purified water, a house at a comfortable temperature (we didn’t have central AC growing up) and let’s not even get started on smart phones. If you had described all this to me as a kid, I would have thought you were talking about someone incredibly wealthy. It’s good to pause every now and then and appreciate the amazing things we have!
I feel the same way, Jenny! I was certainly not deprived in any way as a kid, but things exist today that didn’t back then. It was just different!
Such a lovely post Nicole! So many of your points resonated with me. I am so grateful for my health and the ability to be active. At 67 years old I can still run (albeit not as fast or far as I used to, but that’s ok). I love that line about waking up & putting my feet on the ground. Living in a beautiful country with clean water, feeling safe and having the freedom to do what I want every day. Your boys having their drivers licenses brought back the memory of when my daughter got hers. She LOVED to drive her 3 little bros to all their activities and run errands for me — it truly changed my life! We had our big family dinner last weekend as a few of our kids had travel plans for Thanksgiving. That freed up this one for lots of relaxing, reading and hiking in the sunshine. (ps how can you not like pie???? wow – it is my absolute favourite dessert).
Thanks Pat! It’s such a big change, having no kids to drive around. It’s LOVELY.
You can have my share of pie!
Happy Thanksgiving Nicole! I know that I have the word pie in my blog name, but honestly I’m not that thrilled with them either. Here’s to chocolate cake and first steps!
Chocolate cake forever! Actually, I’ll take any kind of cake.
I love your list of things to be thankful for! I am so glad I found your blog this year! I, too, had a community of bloggers from the 2008ish era and practically all of them have stopped blogging except Stephany and San. I am glad I’ve found a new group of women, though!
I think you would enjoy the book “Animal Vegetable Miracle” – have you read it? It’s a memoir by Barbara Kingsolver about her family’s quest to only eat locally grown/produced foods. She lives in NC so it’s a reasonable challenge – it would be very hard for those of us that live in cold climates. But since you enjoy gardening, I think you’d like the book, although they do raise chickens that they go on to eat, I think, so that might be hard for you as a vegetarian… but you could skip that chapter! That book inspired me to start canning. I had helped my mom as a child and remembered a shocking amount of the process, and made a lot of calls to her, too, of course. But i canned salsa and marinara sauce. But then that came to a crashing halt after Paul around when Paul was 2 and I was pregnant since it’s a ton of work. But someday I will do that again.
I’m glad the 6:30 character redeemed Lessons in Chemistry for you. Elizabeth Zott’s experience was so awful but also probably very real. 🙁 We’ve come a long ways since that era but there is still more work to do!
Oh and lastly I will say that having a chronic illness has really made me appreciate what my body can do. So the phrase “I woke up this morning, I put my feet on the ground, not everyone has that privilege.” really resonates with me. When I first got diagnosed, I was in so much pain – walking was painful, I couldn’t fully extend an arm, I couldn’t carry my own suitcase/get it out of overhead bins. It was bad. But it has made me really appreciate being healthy again. So I try to say “I get to go for a run” or “I get to do a strength training workout” instead of “I have to” because it’s truly something to be grateful for. That’s not to say I enjoy every workout or always feel motivated and all rah rah, but in general, I am very grateful that I’m not in pain most of the time.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!!!
Oh Lisa! I can imagine just how that must resonate with you. On a much smaller scale, I hurt my hip badly in 2019 and it was many months before I could walk without pain. It really changed my perspective on everything. I am so grateful to be able to move without pain!
I am so glad we found each other! xoxo
Happy Thanksgiving, Nicole! I am grateful for you!!!! And also, for a quiet house (for now). And for the beautiful fall weather.
Enjoy your quiet house!
This is a lovely post; thank you for writing it. Also, can we talk more about pie?? Like, do you actively hate it or is it just not your fave? Does this apply to savory pies like quiche or just to sweet ones? Would you eat pumpkin pie filling baked with no crust, or does the whole category of “soft fillings in starchy/buttery cases” give you the shudders?
(I have many questions for you because I love making and eating pastry, but I just deleted a paragraph because I didn’t want to go all Sam-I-Am on you.)
Thanks Jamie! It’s the pastry AND the cooked fruit that gags me. Particularly apple and pumpkin – no. I can’t! Now, I do enjoy a chocolate mousse pie, but that seems different. I don’t eat eggs so quiche are out of the question for me. I guess it’s the whole “soft fillings in starchy/buttery cases.” I like making pastry and I happily bake pies for the guys, but I don’t partake.
Happy Thanksgiving! You know how I feel about fall – bring on the crunchy leaves, beautiful colours and crisp mornings. I think there is just something so wonderful about Canadian Thanksgiving aligning with THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR (seasonally speaking, to me).
Your points are all just wonderful and reading this post feels like a warm, grateful hug my lovely internet friend <3
Thanks so much Elisabeth! So much to be grateful for!
Happy Thanksgiving! I had to bust out my heated vest, so I know fall is here. Some of the trees in our neighborhood are just starting to drop their leaves and it is a fine time to be alive.
I thought Lessons in Chemistry was going to be an easy breezy romance based on the cover and was quite surprised by some its more challenging aspects. I liked it, but I also do not think it’s a book for sensitive readers!
Oh I agree! I was quite surprised, particularly about the reasons the women dropped their programs. I thought…well, that wasn’t what I thought it was going to be like. The dog was so charming though, and I did enjoy it.
I love gratitude posts! Happy Thanksgiving! (I’m so grateful for you and your blog)
I love seeing how your leaves have changed. Ours are only getting started. This is my favorite time of year.
Now I’m singing Eddie Rabbit. Which, I suppose, isn’t the worst thing in the world.❤️
We had a huge windstorm yesterday and most of those leaves are gone now! I’m glad I got the photos.
This was a wonderful post. You make many great points. As my kids are getting older and adventuring out in the world, it is hard not to worry. I made a point to stop myself today and be grateful that everyone is home, or where they are supposed to be at the moment, and safe after a very full and enjoyable weekend. *Mini tested positive for the flu today after I drove in a car with her for 3.5 hours yesterday. Yikes. I hope to be grateful that the rest of us don’t get sick.
You bring up many other good points. I remember telling my kids that strawberries were only available in the summer, but you are right – they are always available. A true wonder. So much beauty in nature too.
I so appreciate the wonderful blog community too.
Happy Thanksgiving. I’m grateful for your upbeat and entertaining posts.
Thanks so much Ernie! Hope you guys duck the flu!
Happy Thanksgiving, Nicole! Thanksgiving is always a good time to remember what you should be grateful. And, yes, I am grateful to you and all of the bloggers in our lives. Yes blogging has changed quite a lot over the years, but I think it’s coming back around to being a community again. At least, I hope so.
I agree! It’s really strengthened I think.
I could just feel the warm and cozy feelings rising inside me as I read your lovely post! There is so much to be thankful for! Happy thanksgiving!
Thanks Maya!
I absolutely love Thanksgiving time because it brings up the topic of gratitude, obviously, for pretty much EVERYONE, when it isn’t normally a topic that as many people talk about. It’s something I’m pretty passionate about and always working on. I love those quotes you shared, and your gratitude list is awesome. I know it can feel cliche to say you feel grateful for things like food and water, but I really do think it’s SO important to pause and focus on those “basic” things. We do tend to take those for granted in our first world countries, and I think it’s powerful to really just think about that every so often.
It is SO important! And you’re right – it’s a powerful thought. We have so many wonderful gifts in our lives that others do not!
Such a lovely post, Nicole. I enjoyed reading these wonderful thoughts of gratitude, which made me feel so blessed as well. I hope you and your family had a lovely Thanksgiving.
Thanks Michelle! And to you!
Happy Thanksgiving, friend. Finding your blog and having your friendship has meant the world to me this year (or I guess it’s been more than a year by now!) and I am so grateful to have you in my life!
I love this list of goodness. When we really think about our life, we can find so many moments of thankfulness. I try very hard not to take my health and my family and my community for granted because I know everything can be taken away from me so easily. (I guess that’s the benefits of having anxiety?!) There is much to complain about, but also so much to be grateful for. <3
I am so grateful for you too, Stephany! I’m glad we found each other.
I have a big gratitude thing: my eldest (age 14) was selected to go on a free college visit trip. Yesterday he went to university of Richmond (in Virginia) and today he visited Howard and Georgetown! Tomorrow he visits the Naval Academy and American University. I’ve been looking at lots of his baby photos and diving Sarah McLachlan’s arms of the angel to myself this whole time.
Today I checked in with him at breakfast. The next i heard from him, late in the afternoon, was a photo he sent me of an avocado plushie he bought himself. I had yet to recover any photos of the storied universities.
Wow wow WOW! That is a BIG thing! All by himself, landslide, arms of the angel, wow!!! I love that he bought an avocado plushie.
*singing not diving THANKS AUTOCORRECT
Happy belated Thanksgiving. This is a great post—I agree, we have MUCH to be thankful for. Our health, our amazing families and running hot or cold water.
BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF NATURE! I love that and I’ll use her quote too. 🙂
Thanks so much Suz! BEHOLD! I like that!
Thank you for this reminder of all we have to be grateful for… I’m grateful I FINALLY started following your blog – you rapidly ascended to my favorites list. 🙂 Your joy and humor and ability to see the good – and the absurd – in every situation… well, I’m thankful for that perspective in my life. 🙂
Oh, thank you so much, Anne!
Happy Thanksgiving Nicole. I couldn’t agree more with your list of things to be thankful for and we should all remind ourselves how good we have it, every single day! I am also very thankful for our little blogger community. For a while there, blogging seemed to be on the downhill… but having found you and all the other wonderful bloggers in our little community has given me so much joy!
Same here!