It Makes Sense to Me: "I LOVE Thanksgiving----

November 21, 2011

"I LOVE Thanksgiving----

I'm a holiday kind of guy. I love the Christmas season with its "peace-on-earth" and '"joy-to-the-world" messages and Santa Claus, and elves and Christmas lights and all that comes with the excitement leading up to Christmas Day. Most of all, I love the "reason for the season"---acknowledging the birth of Christ.

I also am fully aware of the pressure and stress Christmastime can bring to so many; the homeless, the unemployed, those with serious illness, and especially the parents with no money who desperately want Santa to visit their house on Christmas Eve. Let's face it, kids are kids and Santa is Santa; to them the "real world" has no place in their little, anxious hearts. The stress this can cause for a mommy and daddy who might be struggling just to make rent can sometimes be overwhelming. Single parents have a double whammy. They are missing a spouse to vent with. This I shall address in a week or so. But, for now, it is Thanksgiving week.

I LOVE Thanksgiving. To me it IS the best day of the year. Why? Because it is the one day of the year when we pause and simply give thanks for all that we have even if it is just a little. A job, good health, a cancer in remission, connecting with a long lost relative, the birth of a child, so many things that we can be thankful for. People from every economic situation can have a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Homeless shelters and soup kitchens and prisons serve turkey. Folks who have little money are able to receive turkey baskets from various charitable organizations so they can have a turkey dinner at home with their families. No-one in America needs to go hungry on Thanksgiving Day. You do not need to purchase gifts. All you have to do is show up, hang out, eat and enjoy the uplifted spirit of family and friends that are with you, even if they are strangers in a soup kitchen. It is a beautiful thing.

"If the only prayer you said in your WHOLE LIFE was,"THANK YOU", that would suffice."
Meister Eckhart 1260-1327, Theologian and Philosopher

No comments:

Post a Comment

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Basically, I am a “blue-collar guy”. It is the world I come from, a world of hard working, hard drinking construction workers, cops, longshoremen, firemen, railroad workers, bus drivers, truckers, sanitation workers, etc. who were, for the most part, family men who loved their God, their families and their country---unconditionally. Consequently, if you would ask me to describe my work as a writer I would call it “blue-collar” meaning that I believe my work is simple fair, easily readable, no-nonsense, minimally superlative, and flows quickly. There is lots of dialogue and my tendency to be omniscient is obvious. I think that is because the characters and I are part of each other and I know what they are thinking

You can email Larry at petersonlarry6@gmail.com

Horizon Homeless

There are millions of people across this great land of ours that are pre-homeless. Please say hello to Bob and Tracey Slider and their son, Jake. They are a composite of so many American families that cover our land from ‘sea to shining sea’. They are among the millions of unnoticed, hardworking, Americans, locked into survival mode while trying their best to do the “right thing” every day. What happens when they are confronted with circumstances which place them on a road heading downward where the horizon up ahead turns homeless? Can they make the turn and begin heading uphill? What choices will they make? What will determine their success or failure?

The Priest and the Peaches

Historical fiction novel set in the Bronx in the mid-1960s

Yimey knew the secret to life. He made sure his family and friends did too. Even when his beloved wife, Elizabeth, died, he kept the faith. But the booze dulled the pain and he drank too much. Then he died and left his five children to fend for themselves. They did not understand why people were calling their dad a "great man". How could that be? Alcohol had killed him and he had left them alone. Who was this man they called "Pops" but everyone else called "Yimey".

Take a seven day journey with the five, newly orphaned Peach kids as they begin their struggle to remain a family while planning their dad's funeral.

Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes

illustrated by Lisa Klug

Willie Wiggles hates his slippery feet. He just slips, slides and spins all over the place. But what he hates even more are the special shoes that have been made for him that will help him to walk just like all the other kids. Willie thinks that they are the "stupidest, ugliest shoes in the whole world."

Discover how sometimes we worry about things about ourselves when actually there is nothing to worry about in the first place.

$2.99
24 pgs.
ebook
ISBN 9781310987854
2011

"Adorable work!" - Tampa Tribune