At my grandfather's home for Canadian Thanksgiving at present -- feeling icky, but still happy to be amongst family. It's also my grandpa's 81st birthday, which is impressive and lovely and lots of other good words. I'm hopefully going to make it through the whole meal sitting up (oh no, tryptophan!) and enjoy a bit of pie.
I gave him a charcoal gray merino wool sweater and a bottle of good wine for the occasion -- and of course, a sappy card, because that's what you should give grandpas.
He's a fiesty, stylish, ferocious, funny man. I shall blog about him tonight, if I am oddly awake later on. I shall also blog about thankfulness -- because I am thankful.
How dare I be anything else in the light of what people in India and Pakistan are going through? It's unimaginably horrifying and I feel no shortage of guilt for whining about a little bout of the flu. I am sending my prayers and a donation to relief when it gets going, and that doesn't feel like remotely enough. But I also think of the Darfur today, and Afghanistan, and the people rebuilding all over the US after Katrina and Rita -- and there are a thousand or a million other nightmares going on worldwide, too. How do people survive? I feel so weak in comparison.
I don't know why I get to sit in a warm house and eat turkey. I really don't. But it certainly means I should use what I have to help others -- much more so than I do.
That's something to chew on, to say the least.
Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and prayers and pictures of muffins (Mark!). Love to all.
5:26:54 PM 
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