The young woman was restless as she lay down to sleep. The wind was blowing the snow through the cracks of her cabin while the high pitched cries of some wild animal bounced off the walls. She had lost ten pounds since moving to this lonely place and never felt quite warm. She listened to the sound of her young husband snoring and wondered that the children could sleep so peacefully.
What was that sound now? It almost sounded like someone knocking. Who could that be?
The woman crept out of her bed and tried to peer through the chinks in the door. It was the woman, a girl really – a native. They had bumped into each other that afternoon, while each was getting water from the creek. They both were startled but soon realized that neither one meant the other harm. They had smiled at each other tentatively and then each scurried home.
The woman opened the door a few inches and peeked out trying to see in the dark. The native girl held out something furry. It was a warm fur blanket, heavy and reassuring. The woman glanced up to thank her but she was gone. The woman closed the door gently, crawled into her bed, and slept.
The golden glow we experience at Thanksgiving is not from the precious metal, but from precious memories, special family traditions, and if we are lucky, from an unexpected friendship. A friendship offered without expectations or compromises. A friendship that grows golden with the years and like the gold in our jewelry box, this gold maintains its value, is pure and true, and does not erode with time.
Thanksgiving is the holiday of the New World celebrated initially by Spanish, British and French colonists along the Atlantic sea coast. It is a harvest festival celebrating the gifts of the spring and summer’s work in the fields. It is a friendship festival acknowledging the acceptance and help offered by the native peoples. True, we know that this period of relative peace was soon replaced as the immigrant trickle turned into a flood. But for one day a year we relax into the grace of thankfulness for the gifts we are given.
On this one day each year, we have been taught to give thanks for our family, friends, home, and country. To keep renewing Thanksgiving, we must teach the giving as well as the thanking. This holiday season let us reach out to the newcomer who walks among us, and be at the door of our neighbor with the unspoken need gently fulfilled.
