HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently completed my first year of retirement and find myself in a peculiar position where I am remembering, living in the present of all the things I am doing to contribute to the Thanksgiving gathering, and looking into the future to imagine what I would like to do in coming months as 2023 is drawing closer.

There have only been a few times in my life when past, present, and future sat down together with me and challenged me to make meaningful decisions.  I was too excited going off to college for such an internal discussion, besides, I think I was too young. 

The day I left a job I really disliked and moved to another state was my first experience of the big three coming together.  I had always planned to teach but that was not happening and I was hoping it would in the new location I had chosen for myself.  Looking back now, I realize I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into as my brother-in-law drove the UHaul away from my apartment.

The second time came only 4 years later when I chose to leave a job I loved, to return to school to follow a calling.  Again, looking back, I had no clue what was ahead despite my intense conversation with those three voices, this time chiding me a bit that perhaps I was making a wrong move.  It turned out, I wasn’t.

The most recent time previous to this when I felt the full weight of the before, now, and to come forcing me to assess what I really wanted in my life and that I might be able to have it.  The phone call from the Chester Upland School District offering me an interview, then a job brought past and future together and in the present, I cried because I had nearly given up on my dream of teaching in a school setting.

So, here I am.  I know where I have been.  I am thinking about what from that past can carry me through this immediate time, then into the future.  And, that’s where Thanksgiving comes into it.  I realize I am truly thankful for so many things, large and small.  Maybe after I experience the gratitude for my life, I can be prepared for the something that can bring an unexpected future as has happened before.

Maybe we all should try this gratitude thing now and then, and let our past, present, and future mull things over a bit.  Such a pause may provide direction or possibly, some resolutions or goals for the coming year, perhaps something even more profound.

Here is what I came up with.  I am thankful:

• For an amazing family who even with our ups and downs has made life possible and helped to shape the person I am,
• For unforgettable friends who brought joy, challenge, and lifelong connections that have made my life bright.  I am hopeful I have done half as much for them,  
• That music has been such an important part of my life from learning  pretty sophisticated songs before entering kindergarten to singing with amazing choirs and directors, performing in Philadelphia Revels, singing with Colonial Revelers, and best of all, singing with my family in many configurations. 
• For the ability to teach, to convey ideas to people of all ages from teaching neighborhood kids at age 10 to serving as a Girl Scout Leader, to earning money as a “teaching babysitter, to working as a volunteer kindergarten aide, to teaching cooking and other skills to blind youth and adults, to serving as an AIDS educator, to teaching Sunday School, to teaching computer-based document design, to substitute teaching, to tutoring, to the ultimate – teaching Gifted Support students.  How lucky!   
• For The chance to live in numerous places in this country and meet extraordinary people,
• For The blessing of leading worship and supply preaching in many different faith communities,

-For Access to a world of books that have opened my mind in a myriad of ways,

• For my enjoyment of all kinds of foods and for not being a picky eater.  I’m also glad I like to cook,
• For skill at writing that enables me to say clearly what I am thinking, well most of the time,
• For an awesome apartment in a really special part of Pennsylvania, 27 years in one home,
• For family, friends, colleagues, even strangers who have enabled me, as a disabled person to go where I needed to go and do what I wanted to do, and with companionship along the way.

There are so many more things I feel true gratitude for, but I think those are the biggies.  Those are the memories, the past.  The present is about Thanksgiving Day and the gathering of most of the Philadelphia area family while we devour air-fried turkey and the fixings.  Before the end of December, there are presents to prepare, shows to sing, a tree to decorate, and some goals for 2023 to set.  I think I am now ready to seriously contemplate the future, grateful for my past and present.    

So, let us all have a terrific Thanksgiving.  May we be grateful for this precious life with all its blessings, wonders, griefs, and glories.  May the rest of 2022 and all of 2023 be a treasure chest filled with joy, personal challenge, and satisfaction as well as opportunities to pay forward the many gifts we have been given.