Thanksgiving 2022 - Adapting to change

My Thanksgiving Feast of Bounty was celebrated at Woodbury Friends Meeting last Sunday, and today I will enjoy left-overs from that feast - a vegan Gardein roast, green beans in mushroom gravy, and I bought a pumpkin pie at Shop Rite. Earlier today I set off with intention: I wanted to get the celery I need for the soup I am making for Soup and Bread day at Meeting tomorrow and money for Bob the Yard Guy to do some more lighting work in the yard for Christmas, and I intended to stop in Wawa and get a flavored coffee to give me the boost to get started on my Christmas decorating. I am too sensitive to caffeine to be able to enjoy coffee any more, but I can have it for a treat once in awhile, and since I don't drink it often, when I do have some, it gives me a big boost of energy which I need to tackle those Christmas tubs in the back room.

First treat of the day wqs the day itself - cool but warm, upper 50's, sunny and a light friendly breeze. Second bit of good fourtune, the ShopRite wasn't crowded and I was second in line in my counter. Third good luck was I took my old Wawa mug, 20 oz. size for the coffee boost, and it was FREE! I got gas in the car while I was out.

I was hoping to get home in time for the annual radio play of Alice's Restaurant, the Arlo Guthrie song of my youth about how his misdeamenor trash arrest saved him from the Vietnam War draft. It brought back so many memories. I remember all the young men I knew waiting in dread for their number to be called and for their freedom to be taken from them and for them to be tortured in basic training and then sent to kill or die in a foreign hell hole far from home and anyone who cared for them. My brother went, my then boyfriend was called up, but he was sent to Germany and I went with him. For me it was the adventure of a lifetime, for that part of my life anyway. My brother survived and survives and I just spoke with him on the phone. He had walked the dog, put his wood burning stove together and was peeling potatoes to cook a meal. He is 75 and I am 77 and we are both well and fairly vigorous.

My chore of the day, my intention is to get started on the inside Christmas decorations. I would like to get the bannister done, and the tree, and perhaps find the trains for a display at Friends Meeting. They said I could put up my trains there this year for Christmas and my little German village.

If I got all that done today, it would be a huge success.

Biggest treat of all was a great phone call from my daughter who is working on a film project in Colorado. It was wonderful to hear from her and I am so thrilled at this step in her career. She will make so many contacts and she will learn so much, what an adventure.

We have reached a good place in our relationship mainly because I have made a great effort to adjust and to fix myself. Adaptation: A huge step in any parent/child relationship is to let them go, and let them be themselves and make their own lives. I learned from mistakes people I knew had made with their children, that you cannot try to make them be your best friend or solve your problems or assauge your loneliness. You have to fix all that yourself, make new rituals, find new family, find new friends and give them the space they need. Also it has been a struggle for me to learn not to keep trying to teach my daughter stuff or use my experiences to alter her perspective. She is done, our work is done and she is now the successful and accomplished adult. She doesn't need or want that from me anymore. Her world is so different from mine, I couldn't really be an guidance anyhow. I need to use my energy to find my way through the foreign territory that is my own new adventure - OLD AGE.

So, I had intented to get home in time for the full play on the radio of Alice's Restaurant, but I walked the dog instead and missed it. I haad the radio on for a time to help me get a rhythm, but I turned it off to do this blog and take my phone call. Now it is time to get busy and get the decorations up.

Instead of an old family Thanksgiving, I have a new Friends Meeting Thanksgiving, and my new tradition for the day will be to listen to the radio and put up the decorations!

And what am I thankful for today, this day of gratitude: 1. My independent, resourceful, intelligent and accomplished daughter, 2. My cozy bungalow on the dog's leg of Green Avenue in the bounteous democracy of America, 3.My healthy and life and the health and life of my family, 4.The glorious benevolent weather of New Jersey today and this whole autumn, 5.The great good fortune that has shone upon my existence throughout my life! I need to add 6.the warm and loving companionship of my cats and dog!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com