Once upon a time ago, when I lived in NYC, my nest was half a block from Central Park and two blocks south of the Natural History Museum. For the years that my daughters were off at college, Christmas home coming won over Thanksgiving, HENCE Julius, my golden retriever, was my Thanksgiving partner.
We would get up pre-dawn. on Thanksgiving morning, usually in the freezing cold, and venture over to the Natural History Museum to watch the parade floats being assembled and blown up. This, as the local pretzel and hot dog vendors were setting up, elbow to elbow on OUR STREET for parade watchers!
Julius and I made a deal on that first ‘no daughters around’ Thanksgiving.
On this particular day, ALL NO GOBBLING OF SIDEWALK GOODIES was lifted. He could have whatever he wanted. Golden retrievers are vacuum cleaners. They are capable of storing (birds retrievers of course by nature) a MULTITUDE of pretzels and hot dog buns in their cheeks.
Well, Thanksgiving will forever bring a smile to my mind’s eye and heart as I think of the simplicity and unrestrained exuberance of Julius’ joy and gratitude for this day. He waggled and smiled and spread his contagious joy up and down the street and then rolled over semi deliriously with a full tummy at the end.
May we all enjoy this day with simplicity and exuberance and be grateful for blessings large and small.