Thursday 27 November 2008

Thanksgiving / Giving Thanks

I am not religious, but I am a follower of philosophy and great inspiration of people like Martin Luther King:

"We will speed the day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing... Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."

I have never been able to read this speech without getting a wee bit o' goose bumps. I have so much to be thankful for and it's days like this that I recognize this fact. As Deniz Bevan of The Girdle of Melian blog, pointed out "You are so lucky to be living in Scotland." I am thankful I live here, but I bet I'm no luckier than Deniz. Canada is a lovely place to live, and hey, everybody likes Canadians! That's something to be thankful for, especially these days.

My husband (who is much appreciated) and I don't own our own house, but we found a lovely cottage to rent on a long term basis. We only have one car, but we don't need it every day. We cringe at the thought of having to fill our oil tank for the winter, but we have proper heating since moving here, as apposed to a very cold, damp place we used to live in. It makes me think of the words below:

"Once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of obtaining shoes I came to the chief of Kufah in a state of much dejection, and saw there a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want of shoes with patience." Sadi, The Gulistan

If you have an inspiration of being thankful or appreciating something in your life that you'd like to share, whether from the Outlander series or anything that touches your outlandish spirit from other sources, please do share them. Thanks to Janet and Deniz for being my first blog contributors. Happy Thanksgiving to our U.S. readers and welcome into the moment to our international friends... now pass the cranberry sauce please! Sam