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

Outlanders Gàidhlig words - audio

Here is my husband, Scot AnSgeulaiche speaking some of the Gàidhlig terms of endearment used in Outlander. There are more on the Jamie and Claire Tour page

You will need a Plugin in your browser, such as Quicktime or Real Player, to play these audio files. You may also Right Click on them and "Save As..." to your hard drive and open them with a stand alone audio programme.

"Mo chuiseal", Jenny's term for her bairns (lit. "my blood")


"Mo doinne", Jamie's name for Claire (lit. "my brown one")


"Mo nighean donn", Jamie's name for Claire (lit. "my brown lassie")



"Sassanach", Jamie's name for Claire (lit. "lowlander")


There are more book phrases on the Jamie and Claire Tour page. If you have any that you would like Scot to record, post here with a page ref, if needed.

How has Outlander inspired your life?

WARNING: This post has a spoiler from "The Fiery Cross" book.
I'm asking about inspirations that the Outlander series has given you, from the little things to the big things. It can be as big as motivating you to change a part of your life, or as small as helping you to get through a difficult moment, like this example: Claire having to defend herself against a bison in the garden with a saw (creating much blood) is a scene that, oddly, came back to assist me later. As long term, but slightly lapsed, vegetarians, we were given a large hock of deer venison as a thank you gift. "Thanks", I said, through a pasty grin, standing at our back door ("what the hell am I going to do with this?" I secretly thought). When my husband found out about it, he was quite happy, because apparently he liked venison, so I felt somewhat obliged to cook it.

Some time later, having squared up to this awful looking chop on the chopping board, I was wondering how I was to butcher it without a) feeling sick b) shutting my eyes and cutting off a finger c) putting myself off the supposed dinner it was to become.

Into my mind popped Claire Fraser, and I thought "What would she do?" Then I remembered her taking on a whole buffalo, not just a bone of venison. I thought "If she can do THAT, I can do THIS".

The venison casserole was a hit with himself, (my husband) btw.

Met any "bison's" in your life that a sprinkling of Gabaldon helped you to overcome? Are you inspired by Claire's ability to overcome adversity or Jamie's ability to speak several languages? Let us hear the teeniest or grandest thought that comes to your mind.