"Thanks Thanksgiving"

 

     By and large we're at peace throughout the mid-Atlantic and the country.  Throughout most of Maryland a kind of uneventful calm seems to hover over the usual bric-a-brac of general concerns:  taxes, old roads and new bridges, jobs, education.  Absent some unexpected calamity, natural or man made, 2024's Season of Joy is opening with a jolly ring.  Thanks, too, that a reading of popular sentiment has things at a measured, sustainable level - even though those pesky consumer prices spiked around 2.6 percent above what they were this time last year.

     The popular droll of, 'well everything's up', has settled into the ho-hum of our bones. In spite of things, we've mostly decided to keep on and move on - something like the British during WWII - 'Stay Calm, and Keep Moving'.  Poultry, especially turkeys, maids-a-milking, concert tickets, and, yes, the wages for elves are all up - and that's not saying anything about a partridge in a pear tree.  Their prices have jumped over 17 percent over 2023 prices.  

     This time of year, moms and dads turn into super-miracle workers, producing all sorts of candy cane red stockings, closets stuffed so full of toys and gifts you can't close the door, red nosed Santa pillows, stuffed as full as Santa himself; and there're those cash treats hidden in corny, 'find-me-if-you-dare', locations, all intended to be discovered.  Santa already?  Who said, "Santa"?  "Aw-shucks".  You bet, we've all got a lot to be thankful for.

      First and foremost, His grace.  Second, here, around the Bay, the east and west of the Bridge, a culture of closeness to Him has always been strong; in part, I supposed, because His extraordinary natural gifts are so readily apparent, up and down the entire Bay's funnel.  Year in, year out, generation after generation have passed their most heartfelt hopes forward, along the watery spine of an entire region (not just Maryland).  The Chesapeake Bay has and just keeps on giving, giving and giving some more.  Thank next His teaching:  after Me, love someone other than self.  If only we humans could be nearly so loving.  (That we aspire at all, is little to remark given our ears to hear and our eyes to see.)  Thanks to Him for the human desire to try, however.  That we even reach at all for the strength to be better people is proof of life. The means to grow is the gift of this life, His life.  We thank Him for all of what being alive means.

     Shout out loud, "Thanks Thanksgiving"!  So many good things, so much to be thankful for.  You have a right to your joy; joy that flow from Him, untaxed, no 'Use By' dates.  Be happy about it. 

      While it follows on our Christian calendar, Christmas and Thanksgiving seem like siblings, tied together by the unquestionable love that binds us all to Him.  They are both all one joy, this one called Thanksgiving; and His birthday, the one called Christmas.  All one joy!  We can't say it enough, "Thanks Thanksgiving. 

     "Thanks Thanksgiving"!  Along the Chesapeake, we know You, our Lord.  Up and down the Bay we give thanks and look forward to Your return.  Peace.