Thankful

       This week in Focus 52 on Flickr we are focusing on THANKFUL. My husband & I hosted Thanksgiving this year. It was one year ago this weekend that we moved into our new house without having sold the old one yet. Two mortgages. We still have not put the other house on the market yet, so one year with two mortgages... I guess it's safe to say that I am thankful for our employment. I can't believe, nor would ever have imagined that we would have been able to manage things this long. It's amazing what you can do when you are in a corner! I am thankful for everyday, everything, everyone, and most of all for the blessings bestowed upon my family & me. We had a tough year. Cancer & old age took two family members & we face the holidays without them for the first time. I decided to hang a ribbon of mini-banners &, as the family arrived, I instructed them to write what they are thankful for. Not everyone participated, but many did, & I enjoyed watching everyone quietly read the comments as the day progressed.

Thanksgiving took on a new meaning years ago when my husband became friends with a native american who is active with his tribal customs. My husband is also part native american. He is from the Blackfoot tribe. He is not active, so we didn't really know too much about Thanksgiving from their perspective. In a nut shell, they hate it. It's all a big lie. They do not celebrate, but mourn. My husband does not like the phrase native american. It's not accurate because this was not "America" when it was colonized. He is a native of this land, and he is an American as it is defined in modern terms.  The idea of celebrating a history that killed a majority of one's race is not something to be celebrated. So we celebrate the new & ever growing fashion of being thankful, a holiday spreading throughout the entire world, & fitting for all races & cultures. We are thankful for the survivors of the Western Natives & for their constant effort to revive & archive their tribal cultures so that we may learn the truth about Thanksgiving, and find gratitude somewhere in the efforts of a few natives who embraced the new people and welcomed them into their land.

If the simple creatures of this world can learn to get along then why shouldn't we?