EAVESDROPPING

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I’ve always loved holidays, especially the ones where you get paid for taking the day off. Retirement has scrambled that scheme a little bit. Someone, whose job it is to keep my pension payments secure and delivered on time is the one who gets paid now for taking the day off. I get paid regularly but all of my days are days off. I’m sort of like the birds at my feeder. Yesterday I overheard one bird to another, “Hey, did you remember that today is Thanksgiving?” They were woodpeckers at the peanut feeder. The other Red Belly nodded. “You could have slept late, taken the day off and nobody would have called you out.” The first Woody replied, “I woke up hungry so I got up early, flew down here. But I am grateful. These peanuts are in a squirrel proof container and when it is almost empty, voilá; it gets filled up full again.” Eavesdropping on wood peckers is nearly a lost art. You have to depend a lot on body language and even at that you have to guess now and then. Woody #2 hopped off the feeder to the top of the post; “Yep, I’m grateful this post is too tall for the feral cat in the storm sewer to pounce. He, or is it she; I don’t want to get close enough to sex any cat but either way, this one is a stealthy S.O.B. and you can’t be careless.” 

Being thankful is easy. Sometimes people ask why can’t I look for the best in people and let it go at that. The analogy I give is about meeting a horse. I go to the back and note the sphincter first, after that I go to the front; not that the sphincter is all important but I need to be mindful. What goes in the horse’s mouth and what comes out the sphincter are obviously different but they are both stereotypes of the same horse. So I hope for the best and plan for every possibility. Suffering and joy are opposite ends of the same rope. 

On the day after Thanksgiving I’m still giving thanks. Being grateful does not require gravity, acceleration or a contract. It’s just a subtle, low level awareness that you could have gotten the sphincter but you didn’t and that makes you happy. Tomorrow will go much the same way; thankful the good is good enough. I am not a Pollyanna, OMG no. I do, on the other hand, understand Yin & Yang. It’s not what you get as much as what you do with it. So I’m thankful, I’m grateful because it works. We have a place in time and what comes with it is what we get. Someone famous said, “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.” Yin & Yang - what you make of it, and I’m thankful. Somebody else famous said, “Happiness is a choice.” I like that too. Happiness comes easier when you’re thankful to begin with.

The woodpeckers had moved on, making room for a titmouse and a nuthatch who had been waiting on the fence. Mouse ate one nut at a time while Hatch took one and flew off, only to return shortly. It isn’t squirrel proof and I’m curious how that works but he was stashing peanuts in the groves and cracks of the bark on the Ash tree. “Are you going to have a big family get together today?” asked Mouse. “It’s Thanksgiving you know.” Hatch looked up and leaned into the Mouse. “No; by this time of year I don’t know where any of them are. I’m grateful they made it through the summer and you don’t have to be in each other’s face to know they love you.” Mouse nodded in agreement,”I know, I know: ain’t it great that they fledge and move on?” They exchanged some insults and prejudice against Blue Jays and took off for the bird bath on the other side of the house. Of all the holidays, I like Thanksgiving best. You can make it whatever you want it to be.