musings

i wonder what it is about music that weave these feelings inside. what magic. i wonder what makes hearts beat…why the heart still beat to a tune that seems faint…fainter by the day. what strength takes hold when the heart seem intent to embrace…to enfold…envelope. sometimes it feels strong and wild…sometimes so very fragile. i wonder why it is so hard to believe…to understand how one can love just as it is..without needing much else…i wonder why there is the need for more. if there is contentment and  joy, what need is there for more? why can people not simply love and believe? for fear..? boredom? if one has faith in God how can there not be a believe that woman is made for man and we need each other to be complete? we are man not angels, not gods. man are made to love each other, to learn from each other…

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving means many things to different people but for most it means wafting the aromas of roast turkey, spicy pumpkin pie, and all the nice accompaniments that go with the holiday. For some, it could be an easy day spent watching football games and kicking back with an easy meal; yet others, its a time to get together with friends and family indoors or outdoors. These are what I have heard and seen from friends. But what is thanksgiving really? How did it really start? What does it really mean? From reading, talking and listening, it seems to me no one really knows for sure when the first Thanksgiving was had. There are many different versions of the basic story…

It is interesting to note that almost every culture in the world has a celebration of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The first recorded Thanksgiving was held by the Spaniards in 1565 in thanks of their arrival in a new world. It is usually stated that they had a Mass of Thanksgiving, which could very well lean towards a far more religious ceremony than a feast especially since they are Roman Catholics. The next recorded celebration was in 1619 when the Virginia colony gave thanks to God on the first day of their arrival as per the group’s charter made on the ship on the journey there. A little later, in 1621, the Pilgrims and Wampanoag had their Thanksgiving celebration. It was more a celebration of the harvest which was traditional for both cultures. While the Native Americans did teach the Pilgrims how to catch and grow food, it was not the great feast and friendship that people believe…especially since a year later the Indian Massacre of 1622 took place…but that is besides the point…

In 1620, a boat called the Mayflower, filled with about 102 people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from England to settle in the New World. They were a group of religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. The voyage took 66 days and hence arrived in the New World around winter. Their first winter was difficult one. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and without fresh food, half of them died from disease.

Life got brighter in spring when the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn, which was a new food for the colonists, peas and barley. The Indians also showed them other crops to grow and how to hunt fowl and deer, and fish, and how to look for wild berries and fruits. In late fall, with bountiful harvest of corn, barley, beans and pumpkin, the Pilgrims gave thanks. They did this by planning a feast. Hence, the first Thanksgiving celebration was born. The Pilgrims invited the local Indian chief and 90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast, cornmeal, cos and sea bass and venison while turkeys and other wild game were by the colonists. They had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squash dishes from the Indians. When they ate, the Pilgrims did not use forks. They used a knife, spoon, a large napkin, and fingers. They also shared plates and drinking vessels.

That first harvest was very important to the Pilgrims. It gave them enough food to store for the long, cold winter so that they would not have to leave America. In following years, many of the original people who first came celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks.

In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day. It was only in the mid-17th century that an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed. It was however not a fixed date celebrated throughout America as it is today…nor was it a day of nor for plentiful food and drink. Thanksgiving back then was a day set aside for prayer and fasting.

After victory during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in 1777, the first National Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by the Continental Congress to be on December 18th. The Continental Congress also proclaimed additional Thanksgiving Days every year or so throughout the war until 1784. These proclamations were heavily laced with Christian language and in support of the “just and necessary war” and very rarely done in November. Then, there was no Thanksgiving proclamations until 1789 when George Washington issued one as the first President of the United States. He put November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. It wasn’t until 1863, after a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving. It is said that Thanksgiving Day is a reminder to be thankful for the courage of our forefathers. Franklin D. Roosevelt however moved Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November when the month had five, and the third when the month had four. But it was finally settled in 1941 when a law was passed dictating that Thanksgiving be celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday in November, as it is celebrated to this day.

I was invited to a Thanksgiving meal on that day. There was turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad and lots of wine. There was the sit-down dinner and after all the eating and cleaning, the hosts and guests went outside on the patio with their wines and smoked, talked and laughed. There were about ten guests, a nice mix of local couples and ‘foreigners’. There were kids too…they ate and watched tv in another room. I was told by friends at other dinners that there were guitar playing and singing, where people join in the singing, usually Mexican ballads which makes the Spanish speaking ladies sigh and the men roll their eyes at the singers, grins and winks all around..lots of fun even if you don’t have a clue..haha..

Anyways, what this all seems to boil down to, is that Thanksgiving’s roots are in religious celebration, praise of victory in wartime, even a slap on the back for America. Today, there is still that spirit of sharing I see, usually between family and friends, in terms of time and food..and recipes. It is a time to rebond, enjoy and plan for the coming festivities.

There are those who refuse to celebrate it based on historical events surrounding the celebration, the forgetting of original reasons and values that caused Thanksgiving to be celebrated in the first place and even those who hate it simply because of all the birds having to die. Personally I think Thanksgiving should be more about being thankful to the Lord for his bountiful grace..it should be an amalgamation of festivities and religious thankfulness. I am not a religious person but the fact that it was my first time amidst the celebration and the very word thanksgiving, I was a little disappointed no one said a little prayer of thanks..no one shared with unknown neighbors living right next door..no one cut back on wine and gossip..but then thats me.

wilting rose

wilting rose

drying in the sun

tips turned black

burnt by life

layers of beauty

hidden away

aching hurt

weakening spirit

head bowed down

to hide the pain

layers of love

stripped a-bare

burnt by life

tips turned black

drying in the sun

the wilting rose

in the sun

sitting in the sun

a lemonade

thinking of a dream

our lil dreams

sunlight shining thru leaves

shadows swaying in the wind

the breeze brings you to me

musings…life

its amazing sometimes how one can be continually growing and not realise it. it has been a rollercoaster month. full of bad stuff..good ones too..great actually. im slowly coming out of my shell and being free and being me. sometimes i wonder what people think of me but most of the time i dont really care. im learning everyday to deal with new people i meet, learn the language and listen as much as i can, learn to deal with a wide range of feelings that come like waves…and yet also like whispered breeze sometimes. i get my strength from the weirdest places and people. i see beauty in things and people that others seem to not see..maybe its just the way i see things…people…life. some say i am like a cloud..having a natural high. i think i feel this high cos im riding on love again. its so true that i am in love with love and i need that encompassing freedom..its wild yet safe. i feel priviledged to be a part of a group of people who seem to want to do a whole lot of good for mankind and spiritually i am gaining in strength..and yet sometimes i think its simply a sharing of burdens. what is clear though i feel more..from others and for others and sometimes it gets too much and i want to hide where i cnt. sometimes the one i love the most hurt me the most but i am learning to go with the flow with that too and to understand and accept where his feelings and words are coming from. life…how amazing. i meet people with such strength yet such great frailty here. wonderful lighted beings who know where their core is yet still feel the need to free themselves with overindulgences..to let go of life’s worries and tiredness and pain. but then,what is overindulgence anyway. i never judge nor say anything i have no right to pry or advise but i pray they really do know their limits and is protected by god and the universe…so very much like children…as we all are…amazing.