We were a bit bothered a couple of weeks ago as we watched big stores pull down their Halloween witches and pumpkins and immediately replace them with Santas and reindeer.
What happened to Thanksgiving? What about the pilgrims and Indians? What about the November we used to have in between October and December? What about the best holiday of the year? What about the family-focused, gratitude-gathering, peace-providing Thanksgiving season that holds off the Christmas-commercializing for a little longer?
Lets not let our families leapfrog over Thanksgiving. Lets not let Thanksgiving become just a little one day break in the Christmas shopping and the hectic holidays. Lets let November be all about gratitude and traditions and heritage and family love. Lets let true gratitude be the harbinger to a meaningful Christmas season.
We want to do our part in sustaining and honoring Thanksgiving by sharing our annual holiday greeting in the form of a family picture and a gratitude poem.
At the risk of exposing more than we should about our age, we have been, for 46 years now, sending out such a poem (see our book "The Thankful Heart"). This year our thoughts turned to the season that houses this holiday to the beautiful month of November and the feeling of the late, late fall. We send this years poem to you, our Deseret News readers, both as thanks for your support and as a small gift to open the holidays.
November
We like to think were in
The mid-autumn of our life
Octoberish
Blue after blue and gathering gold
Fall-full of summer memories
Geared down to a more relaxed joy
But we always anticipate November
Blustery unpredictable
Warm days and hard-frost nights
we even like the sound of it
No-vemm-berr
Thanksgiving comes in the right month
Thankful for harvest for flaming Fall
For first fires on the hearth. It is
The bridge between autumn and winter
Blending appreciation with anticipation
Old Octobers brilliance compensated
By the new possibility of snow
My late October birthday
Makes November the first month
Of my new year
A few bright yellow leaves
Still on the trees
But most crunch under foot
Pungent in the crisper air
The word is thankful not thankfull
Humble aware receptive
Not quite full
Mostly lower case
Parts of November are perfect
Others restless and chilled
Desert beaconing or Islands
No wait because the real year
Doesnt end in mid-winter
But just before spring
Romans had it right Novem
Is nine in Latin
And on their 10-month calendar
That ninth month happened in our March
9 the number
Of our most sacred stewardships
9 drawn from the center
It starts the clockwise outward spiral
Of Thanksgivings reach
You friends and family
Are the essence of that whirlwind
The calm joy in the eye of that storm
And there is slow time for reflection
And thanks-giving
The expression of which
Consummates joy
What happened to Thanksgiving? What about the pilgrims and Indians? What about the November we used to have in between October and December? What about the best holiday of the year? What about the family-focused, gratitude-gathering, peace-providing Thanksgiving season that holds off the Christmas-commercializing for a little longer?
Lets not let our families leapfrog over Thanksgiving. Lets not let Thanksgiving become just a little one day break in the Christmas shopping and the hectic holidays. Lets let November be all about gratitude and traditions and heritage and family love. Lets let true gratitude be the harbinger to a meaningful Christmas season.
We want to do our part in sustaining and honoring Thanksgiving by sharing our annual holiday greeting in the form of a family picture and a gratitude poem.
At the risk of exposing more than we should about our age, we have been, for 46 years now, sending out such a poem (see our book "The Thankful Heart"). This year our thoughts turned to the season that houses this holiday to the beautiful month of November and the feeling of the late, late fall. We send this years poem to you, our Deseret News readers, both as thanks for your support and as a small gift to open the holidays.
November
We like to think were in
The mid-autumn of our life
Octoberish
Blue after blue and gathering gold
Fall-full of summer memories
Geared down to a more relaxed joy
But we always anticipate November
Blustery unpredictable
Warm days and hard-frost nights
we even like the sound of it
No-vemm-berr
Thanksgiving comes in the right month
Thankful for harvest for flaming Fall
For first fires on the hearth. It is
The bridge between autumn and winter
Blending appreciation with anticipation
Old Octobers brilliance compensated
By the new possibility of snow
My late October birthday
Makes November the first month
Of my new year
A few bright yellow leaves
Still on the trees
But most crunch under foot
Pungent in the crisper air
The word is thankful not thankfull
Humble aware receptive
Not quite full
Mostly lower case
Parts of November are perfect
Others restless and chilled
Desert beaconing or Islands
No wait because the real year
Doesnt end in mid-winter
But just before spring
Romans had it right Novem
Is nine in Latin
And on their 10-month calendar
That ninth month happened in our March
9 the number
Of our most sacred stewardships
9 drawn from the center
It starts the clockwise outward spiral
Of Thanksgivings reach
You friends and family
Are the essence of that whirlwind
The calm joy in the eye of that storm
And there is slow time for reflection
And thanks-giving
The expression of which
Consummates joy