Happy Thanksgiving from Whimfield
Posted on 12. Oct, 2009 by Laura-Jane - Whimfield in Outdoors, Personal
Being thousands of miles away from our families this Thanksgiving reminds me that it’s really not about the holidays.
To me, it’s about the everyday. It’s about being able to call your loved ones when you’re bored, when you’re upset or when you just want to talk. It’s not about the holidays. It’s about the every day.
That being said, I do like to give thanks on this Thanksgiving weekend.
I’d like to give thanks for:
1. My family and loved ones.
2. Our neighbours and friends.
3. My good health and good fortune.
4. Having had the chance to experience every high-and-low of the past two years.
5. Having a warm and cozy home as winter approaches.
6. Feeling better about life these days.
7. You.
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?
vicki
Oct 12th, 2009
I am thankful for having both Cam & you in my life. Happy Thanksgiving.
Amanda
Oct 12th, 2009
oo I echo the thanks of a warm cozy house.
Happy Thanksgiving Laura-Jane
Gary Gray
Oct 12th, 2009
Hi L-J
Thank you… for continuing to write your Whimfield blog. (looking forward to “Whimfield” the book)
Thank you… for being an awesome friend.
Thank you… for continuing to write things other than your blog posts.
http://www.amazon.ca/Prince-Edward-Library-Montague-Writers/dp/0978399536/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255402234&sr=8-1
Smiles :o)
Gary
P.S. Is that some relation of “Wilson” hanging out with you… lol (the cool pumpkin guy)
Vicki
Oct 13th, 2009
Wilson, I miss you!!
Merlin29
Oct 13th, 2009
What is your Country of Nationality? ,
Michelle
Oct 13th, 2009
I’m guessing that Laura-Jane’s ancestral background is German. Ja?
My list of things that I’m grateful for is long… but here’s a few.
My husband, my pets, my home, my view, the fact that I’m not a material girl (even though I do have expensive tastes), being debt-free and having good health.
an aside: I’m pretty sure the way I’ve written the above list would get a failing grade in English. I’m just leaving it alone.
warren
Oct 13th, 2009
I am thankful for hope…I seem to have more of that now than usual…not sure why but things just seem good to me nowadays.
Freda
Oct 14th, 2009
Beautiful!! The sky behind you in the tree is a clear and beautiful blue. I love you walking away in the field with your pumpkin. Such a determined step “I am on my way, do not block me” stride. Love it.
With a new daughter-in-law from PEI I need to start paying attention to Canadian holidays. Just looked on calendar and yours was Monday. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
christy
Oct 14th, 2009
this was the 2nd canadian blog i clicked on today before i realized ‘wow canadian thanksgiving must be in october’ LOL.
i’m thankful that you posted such greta pictures. i love how you just like climbed that tree and carried the pumpkin up with you. hilarious!
Laura-Jane - Whimfield
Oct 15th, 2009
Michelle, you’re close. Dutch!
Gary, thank you for your tireless efforts in many areas of your life. They are not going unnoticed.
Arenda
Oct 16th, 2009
Ahh the dutchies like to move abroad! (I’m dutch as well, born & raised!)
Thanks for another great post.
LJ
Oct 16th, 2009
LJ – you never cease to amaze me. You are always so freakin’ photogenic. I love this photos of you. Happy Belated Thanksgiving as well.
Uncle Wally
Oct 17th, 2009
Thanksgiving and the Whimfield Blog reminds me that relocating sheds light on life’s metamorphic reality; something must be left behind to move forward.
From child to adult to what was both before and is after; it is the whole part part of change. As Hawksley Workman writes:
A stone is not a grain of sand
It’s hard, I guess, to understand
Both broken parts scatter the land
A stone is not a grain of sand
And one has lived for longer still
The other longs to break until
The wind can lift it in its hand
A stone is not a grain of sand.
A Moth Is Not A Butterfly
- Hawksley Workman
http://www.hawksleyworkman.com/
Kay Nicholson
Oct 17th, 2009
Love your blog, neighbour! The pictures are awesome.
Narconon
Oct 18th, 2009
I use to love the feeling I got from going to my grandfathers on thanksgiving and spending time with family and friends. Until one day my friends or at least I thought they were friends gave me a cigar and so i started smoking it and they had put heroin in it. I was driving and they were all in the car also, we were on our way to this party when I passed out and we hit a stump, flew into a ditch, and rolled into a house. My friend next to me was killed instantly the girl and the other guy in the back also were killed on the way to the hospital. I was critically injured and had a broken nose a fractured arm and 3 broken ribs. I managed to get out of the car and look inside the house we just rolled into. The family was screaming and the car was halfway in the living room. The families baby boy and puppy were underneath the car……..They didn’t make it.
Now I have to live with all there blood on my hands. I went to jail for a long time. Now I’m on Parole and trying to get a new life started. All it took was a few hits from something I didn’t even want and all their lives were gone. I talked to the family and they forgave me for the horrible thing I had done but I don’t know if I can forgive myself. Narconon
Sal
Dec 6th, 2009
Such sadness. As a parent I find it difficult to forgive myself for some things I did to my child – like yell. But this, for you, you must forgive yourself. You did nothing wrong. You trusted your friends, they paid a high price for that.
The child – what a horrible heart ache.
You must find a way to forgive yourself. Maybe work for them for free – do odd jobs. More to that area and be the best person you can be.
I don’t know. But you must move on and grow as a human. Sal – sadly
Danielle
Oct 18th, 2009
Beautiful photos………we spent Thanksgiving in Murray River with my parents who flew in from Vancouver whom I miss very much around the holidays. It was great to show them my favorite place ( besides Lawrencetown, N.S of course ) So I’m very thankful for that. And very thankful for my wonderful children and husband and for my ability to step out of the norm and have the courage to do things a little differently than everyone else. And thanks to Laura-Jane for your wonderful blog. So inspirational……anyways…..to all you PEI people out there, don’t forget to donate blood Oct 26, 27 and 28th in Miscouche and Oct 29 at UPEI….we’ll be there from Halifax collecting……its in you to give guys……….and all the recipients are so thankful to all who donate. ( sorry to use your blog to plug Canadian Blood Services, couldn’t resist LOL )
Laura-Jane - Whimfield
Oct 18th, 2009
@NA – These are just my thoughts. I am just one person.
It sounds like you are extremely self-aware and reflective and want to be able to get on with your life. The question is, how is that even possible? I am not joking or being facetious. I am asking a legitimate question. *How* can you get on with your life? There is absolutely nothing that can be done to change what has happened. I would think this would lead a person to feel extremely frustrated and like there was nothing that was in their control and feel very hopeless. Are you ever going to be able to “forgive” yourself? I don’t know. What is forgiveness? What would that even mean to forgive yourself? I am not at all saying that you can’t or shouldn’t, but I think it would be damn hard–if not impossible. So maybe it is not appropriate to focus on trying to forgive yourself. Maybe it’s more appropriate to think about what would make you feel better. If I try to put myself in your shoes, I wonder whether if a house was burning and I ran inside and saved ten people, would I feel better about myself? Would I feel like I could forgive myself then? If not that, then what would it take to make yourself feel better? I guess maybe what I’m talking about is feeling “atonement.” I really don’t know anything and maybe this is a bad idea, but it seems to make sense to me.
I think I would try to come up with some ideas of what would make me feel better. I would then pick my top idea off the list (even if I was unsure) and then focus intently on trying to make it happen. That way there is something in my control. There is something that I can DO. Sometimes things seem impossible (like whatever is on your list might require lots of money or something else). But months turn into years really fast. Seemingly impossible ideas become possible when you break them down into baby steps.
Someone who has and is going through what you’re going through has amazing potential to make change in the world. Some people have terrible things happen in their lives and become terrible people. Other people have terrible things happen in their lives and they rise up against what has happened and try to make change to stop that type of thing from ever happening again. What is the difference between these two paths? Why does one person take one path and another take the other path? That is the question.
Also, as time passes, we change as people. I have done things in my past that I cannot believe that I did. It feels like a different person when I think back to how I was ten or fifteen years ago when I was a teenager. The point is that we are continuously changing and evolving. This doesn’t have to define you forever.
These are just my thoughts. I am just one person.
Vicki
Oct 25th, 2009
Narconon, I am so sorry for your pain. I can not begin to imagine how difficult this is for you. May you find strength to live your life the best you can.
Vicki
Oct 25th, 2009
Where is everyone?
Laura-Jane - Whimfield
Oct 25th, 2009
Vicki, do you mean us? We are good, but busy! I am actually working on a new layout for this blog, which I hope to launch this weekend or next weekend. So all my Whimfield energy is being expended on that. :)
Beatrice
Oct 25th, 2009
I am thankful for GOD’S grace and my salvation.
I am greatful that HE gives me what I need,not what I deserve.
Are you greatful too?
Heather
Oct 28th, 2009
For Narconon,
Please go to a Bible-believing church and tell the pastor your story. You should be embraced. If not, go to another one. The Bible is full of people, like you and me, who had terrible things happen to them, who also did terrible things to others, even on purpose. God loved them anyway because they asked for His forgiveness. King David desired the wife of another man and then had the man killed so he could have his wife. I am glad these examples are there because it shows how God’s love is greater than any evil thing we could do. If we ask His forgiveness. That is the key. God offers His forgiveness to us, through his son, Jesus Christ. This is the atonement. I don’t think there is any other way to go on.
You will meet Christians who are jerks and those who are wonderful people. Just look to Him. People will always let you down. There is hope. I will pray for you.
Laura-Jane gives good advice in that by doing kind and noble things for others, it can help to take away the pain. The good news is that you will never be good enough or do enough good things to earn God’s forgiveness and love, it is a gift, contrary to what some large churches teach.
Sorry Laura-Jane for going elsewhere on your blog. I just could not ignore such as sad story and the pain I felt when reading this note.
Kim Nauman
Oct 28th, 2009
The things I’m thankful for are so many I’m afraid I’d be typing for far longer than I want to at the moment so I’ll just name the two things I am most thankful for. My husband and my son. The two most wonderful people I have ever known and most likely will ever know. I’ve had many bad experiences in the past with being let down quite hard by people I loved and trusted but my husband and little boy’s love keeps me going even when it’s most difficult to do so. I couldn’t be more thankful for the two of them if I tried :)
Phil
Oct 28th, 2009
In reading so many great thoughts (expressions of both thanks and disappointment), I’m once again led to a three-part realization that hit me a few years back:
1) My two favorite U.S. holidays are Thanksgiving and Veteran’s Day.
2) Neither one of my two favorite U.S. holidays stands a chance against the combined retail machinery of Halloween and Christmas (quickly becoming two of my least favorite holiday seasons).
3) Canadians, in general, put Americans to shame in their collective observance and recognition of Thanksgiving and Veteran’s/Rememberance Day. Every time I turn on CBC those days, I’m seeing some public ceremony, or business that say they’ll close then actually stay closed, and a strong respect for the past. Well done, my Canuck brothers & sisters!
Ira
Oct 28th, 2009
thank you laura-jane for the twit-mail. (or is that ID doing is its job)
you are the one that triggered me to learn how to twit.
twit to you soon, I hope…
happyTHXgiving!
warmth, ira
Bradley
Oct 31st, 2009
I am thankful for people who feel Life in all its trials and tribulations but who continue to reach out to others and leave an open hand for people to reach back to them with love and understanding. I’m also thankful for the talents and skills I have, for they are gifts, and the ability to use them in giving back to others.