Thanksgiving 2009

Dear Sammy,

Happy first week of Advent, the time we celebrate while we wait for Christmas. I'm going to celebrate by flying up to your house and go Christmas shopping with your mom. And then, on Christmas morning … well, that's a story your parents will tell.

I learned to celebrate waiting from the book Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (I knew Pops liked me a lot when, right after he met me he read the book because I talked about it all the time.) In the book the main character teaches his friends how to make the time before something is going to happen just as important as the day they're waiting for. "Waiting is," he said. We can wait by doing nothing, or we can anticipate, we can be impatient, or we can celebrate. That character also taught his friends how to "Grok." Isn't that a funny word? Mr. Heinlein made it up and I wonder how because it is such a perfect sound for what it means. To grok means to feel everything about a day, or even a certain moment in a day, in every way possible, from your insides to your outsides. We don't usually have time to notice everything that happens every day, but when something important happens to us, it's a good idea to take the time later to remember every detail; what we ate; what we saw, what we touched, what we heard and whether at the end of the day we were happy or sad.

I grok holidays, which is why I was so excited to see the picture of you with the Pilgrim ladies. You know, because you live in Plymouth, that the first Thanksgiving Day happened when the Pilgrims realized that they had survived a very hard year, thanks to the Americans (Indians) who taught them how to grow food in their new home, and together they gave thanks to God for their harvest. I tried to be thankful for something every day during November, but it was hard because Thanksgiving Day hadn't happened yet. Then, at work Thanksgiving night, Pops and I met a family with two exceptional boys, one of whom was very afraid of the fireworks. We gave the family a special place to watch the show, and the little boy cried and cried while his mom and dad hugged him (and his brother who was loving every minute) and we could feel the energy of the people around the family saying in their hearts to the mom and dad "You are good people and your boys are beautiful ." I was so grateful then that I work in a place where people are able to hug strangers with their eyes, and, as is true of most Thanksgiving days, I was like a Pilgrim and knew that God is with us. In other words, I Grokked God's presence.

I still do. Yesterday was Uncle David's birthday - He's your great-uncle and a great uncle, just ask your mom. Tomorrow, cousins Emma and Luis celebrate their birthdays, and next week Aunt Jen and Uncle Tom celebrate theirs. With so many birthdays in our family, it's easy to celebrate waiting for Christmas.

Love, Marmee.

P.S. It's not Tuesday, but I'm writing anyway because a promise kept late is better than a promise ignored.