A pared-down and meaningful Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving morning just past, I had a couple of hours to myself before gathering with family. My husband and I are still at the stage of life where one of us has to be completely involved in childcare if the other wants to do an activity in which little people cannot be involved. This fact means my saddle time has been cut significantly, but sometimes, I do get to slip out of the house to the barn on our property and tack up my horses.
I had spent a good, long session in the round pen with two of my mares, and I found myself back in the barn, mind cleared, saddle soap bubbling up between my fingers, the crisp November morning air sweet in my lungs.
I looked to my right at my newly acquired lesson horse, a stout, docile Thoroughbred mare standing 16.3 hands at the shoulder with the demeanor and rideability of a luxury couch.
To my left, stood my young horse, also a Thoroughbred mare, nearly 17 hands now, her new winter coat so dark it gleamed black in the sun. These two lovely animals silently angled their soft, brown gazes at me, probably wondering how long I’d be interrupting their morning.
Their occasional sighs or the scrape of an oversized hoof on concrete were the only sounds that broke that still atmosphere, and I observed a feeling in myself I can only describe as full.
I was thankful to be seeing the light at the end of a long, difficult year. Several serious health situations among family members seemed to be smoothing out. I had kept the spark of a fledgling lesson business glowing during the pandemic. And, to me, the most significant blessing of all was that none of my close family and friends had actually caught COVID-19. I knew plenty of people who had felt — or watched loved ones endure — the effects of this illness, from prolonged difficulty breathing to long hospitalizations to death.
On many levels, for so many people, it’s been one of the most challenging times I can remember.
This Thanksgiving seemed to be more significant than usual, coming toward the close of a year that has brought so many uncharted — and often unfair — hurdles.
The holiday itself looked quite different for me this year. We usually take the week to travel to my extended family in North Carolina, but the meal with my family had us in Ellijay this time with a very pareddown group.
I did the requisite “What did you do for Thanksgiving” check-in with friends after the holiday, and most of them stayed at home with their nuclear families, also. Those who did travel ended up in small gatherings at a nearby relative’s house.
And yet, with all the restrictions and loss we’ve dealt with this year, it seemed a small freedom to me to be able to sit with loved ones around a heavily laden table. There are families who are reeling from the shock of losing someone to the pandemic, and there are others still nursing family members back to health from the devastating effects of this virus. For those who have lost a loved one to COVID-19 this year, there is no apt consolation that I feel I can consolidate to the page. All I can say is I am truly sorry.
For others of us who watched this grief and struggle and have had to significantly alter our own lives in order to stay safe and be respectful of others, I think there has been perhaps a heightened feeling of gratitude this season. The loss we have seen has spurred us to hold our families closer and value our various blessings more — the opportunity to work, our own health, the ability to adjust to life’s challenges. This year, with its paring down of our daily routines, has amplified the things we learn over and over throughout our lives. When things return to a more familiar normal, as I assume they will for most of us, I hope we can look back on the stretches and sacrifices we grew accustomed to and remember the gratitude this Thanksgiving brought out in us.