Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Posted by Sarah

So many things to be thankful for this year. Sometimes I have trouble overlooking the ugly harsh realities to really give thanks for the wonders that cross my path. Have I been thankful today for my eyesight to see the beauty of the Missouri sunrise? Or was I just upset because I had to get out of my house and see it? Have I been thankful today for my soft bed loaded with handmade quilts? Or was I just mad because I had to get out of my bed? Have I been thankful today that I have a job to come to work? Or was I just angry that I couldn't sit at home and watch TV and relax?

This will be my first Thanksgiving without my Grandpa. I'm very sad about that. Grandpa always sat patiently at the head of the table, glowing in his older years at seeing his whole family sitting at his table happy, he'd be rattling off about basketball or football or giving Grandma a hard time about something, and then he'd look at me and give me "the look" to say the blessing. Once the 'amen' was out of my mouth he'd start playing with me and my food. I always sat on Grandpa's right. That was my place. He'd steal hot rolls and deviled eggs off my plate. He did it every year and I would anticipate it coming but he'd just giggle every time he did it. Gosh it's going to be hard this time around.

So, in honor of Thanksgiving, how about re-reading Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation. It's really something wonderful.

Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict, while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense has not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be reverently, solemnly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

(signed) Abraham Lincoln.
TODAY I LOVE: sight, sound, smell, taste, and hearing
SONG OF THE DAY: "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by Iron and Wine

1 comments:

Willie said...

You are such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing today. I can always count on you for some uplifting words. Thanks