It's that time of year again-time to focus on thanksgiving. I try to be in a habit of thankfulness each and every day but am glad for our "national" holiday. Below is interesting information taken from Oxford University press blog on Thanksgiving.

Every American knows the story of the First Thanksgiving: Seeking religious freedom, the Pilgrims established a colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Native Americans taught them how to plant corn and hunt. When the crops were harvested, the Indians joined the Pilgrims at the First Thanksgiving by jointly gobbling up turkeys, saucing cranberries, mashing corn, and squashing pumpkins to make pies. It was such a memorable event that Americans have honored this day ever since, or so goes the story.

The real “traditional” thanksgiving dinner was invented in New England in the late eighteenth century. It was a family oriented day, featuring a dinner with the turkey as central attractions with supporting roles assigned to gravies, stuffings, potatoes, sauces and pies.

The driving force behind making Thanksgiving a national holiday was a New Englander named Sarah Josepha Hale. She wrote a highly idealized account of a fictional Thanksgiving dinner in her novel Northwood (1827). As editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, she commenced a campaign to make it a national holiday. For years, Hale published editorials and penned letters to state and territorial governors, requesting each to proclaim the last Thursday in November “Thanksgiving Day.” Success was within reach in 1860, when thirty three states and territories celebrated Thanksgiving on the same day, but her campaign floundered as the Civil War engulfed the nation. Hoping to save Thanksgiving, she requested that President Lincoln declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. Lincoln did just that a few months later to celebrate the North’s military victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in the summer of 1863.

Throughout Hale’s seventeen year campaign, she made no mention of the Pilgrims. After the Civil War, Hale began to extol the Pilgrim’s association with the First Thanksgiving and proclaimed it true. Other writers quickly followed her lead: The loveable Pilgrims with their funky clothes and immense muskets frivolously enjoying themselves at the fun filled First Thanksgiving were just too much of a good story for writers to pass up. It blossomed in magazines and books and spawned a vast children’s literature.

The rapid adoption of the First Thanksgiving myth also had much to do with the arriving tidal wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. At the time, the public education system’s major task was to create a common, easily understood history of America for immigrant children. The Pilgrims were an ideal symbol for America’s origin, and so they were imbedded in school textbooks, and this immediately accelerated acceptance of the historical fakelore behind the holiday. That Jamestown had a better historical claim was complicated by the fact that American slavery began at Jamestown, which made it an unacceptable location for the nation’s birthplace, especially in the immediate aftermath of the bloody Civil War.

Thanksgiving has become Americanized in ways undreamt by its creators. Immigrant groups have added new traditions and ingredients to thanksgiving’s culinary stew. Businesses have commercialized the day as the launch date for the Christmas selling season. College coaches have selected this day to demonstrate their prowess of their football teams and are thankful when their games are televised nationally. Others use the day to complain about gluttony and obesity or poverty and hunger. Vegetarians and animal rights activists campaign against the turkey holocaust. Still others have chosen not to celebrate it at all. Some Native Americans, for instance, proclaim it “A National Day of Mourning.”

However Americans respond to it, Thanksgiving remains one of our most important holidays, when millions of Americans will sit down with family members to enjoy dinner together. It is truly a wonderful America’s holiday– even without the Pilgrim fakelore.

Intentional Happiness

Have you ever thought about why some people are happier than others? Through controlled experiments, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, found that happiness is determined by three factors:

1. Genetics: Studies of twins & adopted children show that our happiness/unhappiness response can be explained by the chromosomes we inherit from our parents.
2. Life circumstances: Our income, marriage, children, occupation, physical health and where we live contribute to our overall chance to experience happiness.
3. Intentional activity: Learned emotional & behavioral factors. How we act & how we respond to circumstances contribute to our overall chance to experience happiness. Mental & behavior changes can enable us to rise above our chromosomes & circumstances. Those who cultivate certain habits can learn to live a joyful, contented life, no matter what circumstances occur.

Others have the right to expect that we keep the promises we make, that we tell the truth, that we pay our debts, and we do nothing that might impede their pursuit of a well-lived life. There expectations are obligations of justice. Beyond obligations of justice stand three virtuous habits that will lead to a life filled with happiness. These are altruism, gratitude and optimism.

With each new day, our happiness depends more on our attitudes than our circumstances. If an abundant life depends upon our choices, why not choose activities that bring happiness....

Choose to adjust ourselves to whatever comes our way
Choose to take care of our bodies by execising & eating properly
Choose to improve our minds by reading & listening
Choose to do something good for someone
Choose to praise the good around us
Choose to love

Grateful for Babies in the Church Nursery & helpers

I shared nursery duty at church today with my dear friend, Joan. The day began easy enough with one sleepy little boy. The next thing I knew, there were two little boys. Then along came a third and a fourth. All these babies were under the age of 2 and were busy exploring, moving constantly and in need of supervision.

I am grateful for the swing set behind the church and the person who built it so lovingly. I am grateful to see parents bringing their babies to church and that to be able to welcome the little ones into our nursery.

A grateful heart

The spring is exquisite in its colors.  As I grow older, it seems that I am filled with more appreciation for the beauty all around.  The yellow forsythia and daffodils blooming so abundantly everywhere, the blossoms on the cherry trees and the japanese magnolias....... so refreshing.  The new "baby green" color from the weeping willows is another favorite to be grateful for.  

Lunch with dear friends, an email from my German exchange student, a phone call from my nephew, a movie at the Grandin Theatre and having my entire family together today is as grateful as it gets!

"Poison Ivy" at Forest Park Academy

"Poison Ivy" at Forest Park Academy

Day One

Today is my first foreray into the blogosphere. There's so much moaning and groaning going around these days. Everyone is lamenting pratically everything. While our world is in quite a mess, I know that I have so much to be grateful for. Today, among many other things, I am grateful for the following:

• Coffee this morning with my dear friend, Fran Ferguson
• A fun hour of teaching ballroom dance to Glenvar Elementary fourth graders
• Deborah Goglia who called to ask for Ursula's artwork to be displayed in the Center in the Square Galleries
• My dog, Ruby, who did NOT run away today!