ElderChicks

Ah November, sweet November. Once the leaves start to turn, the weather chills and the days grow short, so does the year. For me, November signals the slippery, downward slope to the end of the year.

When I wore a younger woman’s clothes it was the beginning of the most chaotic period of the year. There was the Thanksgiving meal to plan, shop and prepare. It was the beginning of a festive time; lots of entertaining; a full table on Thanksgiving Day; good food, good family, good friends gathered around a loaded table.

Now, those days are behind me. Does that make me sad? No, not at all. Now I can relax while others scurry and run. Sometimes Thanksgiving Day is still a festive gathering of family and or friends, but I get to sit in a comfy chair; be waited on and catered to by people who love me. And, there are also times when it is a solitary day. A Cornish game hen perhaps instead of a turkey; store bought pie instead of home made; and yet even those times give me much for which to be grateful.

In my eighth decade, like St. Paul before me, I have learned to be content with whatever life brings my way. I have been a struggling single mom; I have been a wife (twice); I am a grandmother and a great-grandmother. I still enjoy robust health; I have enjoyed great prosperity and some pretty lean times; I have a store house of memories I can bring out when I need or want them; I am blessed beyond measure and grateful every day, not just once a year.