Even a Heavy Heart Can Soar. Give Thanks!

Driving out of our long gravel roadway, we looked at each other with complete and unspoken understanding of each other's thoughts for this day: this is going to be a bitter-sweet holiday season. Year 2010 is a year of great losses. Thanksgiving was going to be the first time when we would have to truly face the emptiness left by the dearest people we lost. So it was a somber drive. Recalling the smiles and the laughter of the past, and the agony of the loss, and quietly wondering what will it be like this year...

For the third year in a row now, the Guadan family Thanksgiving is graciously hosted in Seattle by my darling sister-in-law Tina and her handsome husband Justin.

It is such a delight to be here! Everyone is enjoying themselves, including the FIVE dogs freely roaming through the house. The girls are giggling, the wine is passed around, the events are discussed... And then you smell it. It's now flowing from the kitchen into the rest of the house, teasing everybody ever so gently yet with so much power! The bird is out of the oven. The aroma is so intoxicating we can hardly contain ourselves. The dinner is going to be GOOD.

And so we toast to family.  And it feels good. It feels right. It feels grateful. And at that moment I know in my heart, that those, whose seats at the family dinner table were empty this year, are smiling from above. Because it's to their family, and to their legacy.

My heart, heavy with sadness, begins to lift as I am grateful for these beautiful faces:

And for these stinky mutts:

And for this man, whose heart is bigger than a mountain (I know, he doesn't smile for pictures ;) ):

And for Tina's incredible creations laced with love:



This was indeed a day of thanksgiving. Much to be grateful for. I am truly blessed.