A Season of Gratitude

The American Thanksgiving holiday is just less than two weeks away. In addition to being a time of family gatherings and big feasts, many of us think conscious thoughts of gratitude. My laundry room always served as an art gallery for the masterpieces my children brought home from school.  I cannot bring myself to take them down - I get too much pleasure from looking at them even now. Some of this artwork has an extra-special significance to me at this time of the year.

On one wall hangs two of my prized possessions - one made by my daughter and the other by my son, when they were both in preschool.  

• My daughter’s was a Thanksgiving craft.  Using her newly acquired skill of cutting with scissors, she cut, pasted, and drew a turkey. The teacher asked her what she was most thankful for, and then wrote her comment on her turkey: “I'm thankful for my mommy.”  (Before you get the impression that I am the favored parent - her daddy got lots of affirming artwork too!)  Each time I've looked at this simple little sentence, it has never failed to warm my heart!

• For my son’s craft, someone traced his tiny preschool hands. He cut out their shapes and glued a heart between them, as though the hands are holding it. It was not a Thanksgiving craft - but it makes me feel thankful whenever I look at it. His hands are now bigger than mine, but I am so lucky to have held his, as he was growing up. He will always have my heart!

The paper of both of these crafts is old and faded.  The writing on the turkey is a little smeared.  But when I look at them, I am transported back to a time when my children were small, and I was the very center of their universe.  I hope they both know how very thankful I was/ am/ and always will be, that I have had the privilege to be their mom.

Why wait for Thanksgiving? The true value of the holiday, I think, is how it reminds us to take a minute, and tell others how much they mean to us. To reflect upon the good things in our lives.  To relive a memory or make a memory. To do something to make someone else thankful for us.

It sounds like a good way to make this weekend wonderful.  Happy weekend!

Is there artwork that makes you feel special or reminds you of the past?

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