Thursday, November 23, 2017

Scrambled with a Side of Gratitude

Thanksgiving morning.

~

Eggs are scrambling up yellow and fluffy in the pan. Thank you, chickens, for laying them. Thank you to my friend P, for collecting the eggs and letting us buy them. Thank you, Mr. M, for scrambling them. (How do you get them so fluffy? They never look that good when I cook them.)

Chopped chives come from the freezer to garnish the eggs. Thank you, landlord, for letting us grow herbs on the doorstep. Thank you, God, for the sun and rain that caused the chives to grow. Thank you to the workers who built the fridge, to those who loaded it onto a truck, to the truckers who brought it to a warehouse and then to us, so we could store up the summer's bounty and enjoy it later.

The eggs are dusted with salt and pepper and paprika. Thank you, far-off folk who mined the salt; thank you, tenders of the pepper vines from whence the peppercorns came; thank you, growers of peppers for paprika. Thank you, sorters and mixers and packagers and transporters of these tiny miracles of flavour.

In another pan, apples are sizzling in melted butter. Thank you, farmers, for growing the apples. Thank you, workers, for harvesting them. Thank you, cows, for giving the cream to make the butter. Thank you, dairy farmers, for tending the cows and milking them. Thank you, creamery workers, for turning the cream into butter.

Brown sugar and cinnamon are stirred into the apples. Thank you, sugar cane growers and mill workers. Thank you, harvesters and packers of cinnamon bark. Thank you, spice company employees, for bringing and blending cinnamon from many countries, and making it available to us.

Water is steaming in the kettle for coffee and tea. Thank you, diggers of wells and maintainers of village water supplies, who make it so easy for us to access this fountain of life. Thank you, makers of teakettles. Thank you, growers of coffee and tea. Thank you, workers who plucked the beans and the leaves, who dried and packaged and transported them from lands beyond the horizon. Thank you, friend (you know who you are) who sent Mr. M the coffee-making apparatus he uses daily.

Breakfast is put on the table. Thank you, workers who produced these plates. Thank you, miners who dug the metal for our forks, and thank you, metalworkers who made them. Thank you, far-off hands that printed the flowers on the placemats. Thank you, God, for the trees that gave the wood for the table and chairs. Thank you, woodworkers, who made them.

Sunlight is streaming through the south-facing windows, filling the rooms with light and warmth. Thank you, long-gone builders of this house, for the enduring work of your hands. Thank you again, God, for the sun, and for windows and walls that keep out the cold.

Thank You for the jobs that gave us money to buy this food, and for the health that lets us cook it and enjoy it. For all our uncountable blessings, thank You.


~

Just a simple breakfast, yet so much to be thankful for: the overarching love and grace of God, the overlapping work of many hands. The circle of gratitude grows and grows, reaching across nations, spanning space and time.

Thank you for reading this. Happy Thanksgiving.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

24 comments:

  1. We do have so much to be thankful for, including good blogs to read.

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    1. Amen to that! Thanks, Janet. I hope you and Mac had a pleasant Thanksgiving. :)

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  2. Thank you for friends whose wonderful writing reminds us of how everything we touch connects us to the whole world.

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    1. That's just what I was feeling when I wrote this - that sense of connection. Thanks for summing it up so well, Amy.

      :)

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  3. Beautiful.
    Eat, drink and be...THANKFUL!
    Happy Thanksgiving. x

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    1. Thanks, Kay! I hope you and the fam had a lovely Thanksgiving. :)

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  4. Thank YOU for spelling out how many things we take for granted and that we need to be thankful for.

    *:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*:._.:*~*:._.:*:._.:*
    *H*A*P*P*Y* *T*H*A*N*K*S*G*I*V*I*N*G*!*!*
    *:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*:._.:*~*:._.:*:._.:*

    ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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    1. Thanks, Teresa! And you're welcome. I hope your day was a happy one. :)

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  5. Thank you for the reminder that we need to be thankful for every single thing in our lives. It is so easy to forget. Hope you had a wonderful day.

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    1. Thank you, Mere! I hope your day was wonderful too. :)

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  6. Never before in the history of mankind have so many had so much. Thank you God.

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    1. Amen to that. Happy day-after-Thanksgiving to you. :)

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  7. a beautiful thankful post. Love it.

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    1. Thanks kathy! I hope you and Fireman had a good Thanksgiving. :)

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  8. Oh yes, thank you. Well said.

    It's good to think about where the good we have in life comes and say a prayer. But it is not enough!

    In fact I am sick of prayers.

    It is probably true that never in history so many have had so much. But still, there are so many who have less than nothing because many (including me) have too much. We must also pay a fair prize for products that the producers, workers and transporters who ever and where ever they are can have a decent breakfast (a humane life) too.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you Susan and your husband, who wins the best-scambled-eggs-maker of the century.

    Regula

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    1. You're right. Prayers are good - very good - but action is also necessary. The world and its economy are so messed-up. Thank you for speaking out on this, Regula.

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  9. A very nice post .... I think we sometimes don't consider all the hands that make our meals before WE do.

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  10. Thank you for such an eloquent reminder of what we are celebrating and why. I am so thankful for everything, but I spend so much time rushing around for the responsibilities, commitments and delights of life, I often don't remember to take the time to be thankful for each one. We have been so bounteously blessed!

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    1. Amen to that, Deb! Busy-ness (and busi-ness) so often doesn't leave us time for mindful gratitude. It took a holiday morning and no commitments for those thoughts to develop in my head. I'm grateful for that too. :)

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  11. I think you have eaten a breakfast of Gratitude with a side of fluffy, scrambled eggs! It is good to be thankful for all we have and to recognize how very lucky we are in our simple lives.

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    1. Amen to that. Now that the weather is getting cold, we're feeling extra thankful for those walls and windows and for warm clothing. We are so rich.

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  12. Thank, friend for the 1001 ways to express our gratitude and the creative wordings wisdom from our Lord.

    I love this read so much. Thank you internet that we can connect even to the ends of our orient seas from the Americas. Thank you grid keepers and owners that we can top to electricity and thanks to the laptop, computer makers all the list of them from owners to the janitors to the deliveries and most specially to God who sends people where we can get money to buy all of the above. Hallelujah!

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    1. Sorry for some typos, my fingers have a mind of their own. They add s when not needed or drop it when needed. Wooooh!

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