11/20/17 RMB Happy Thanksgiving Week
Dear Rita Mae Brown,
Happy Thanksgiving week!
A text from my nephew appeared on my phone the other day. It
displayed only an image of the lineup for the Kentucky Book Fair. It was a
poster that he spotted with photos of the authors, including one Rita Mae
Brown. A rare pang of jealousy reared its dragon like head and poof’d smoke
over me making me wish that, like my nephew, for this one weekend, I lived in
Kentucky.
Here in California, I just finished reading The
Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohllben.
Last week my sister/roommate and I spent a weekend at our
other sister’s home (the nephew’s mom) in Orange County. We celebrated an early
Thanksgiving dinner and sister time.
This week I will travel to the high desert in 29 Palms to
visit and celebrate the holiday with Teddy and the friends who are her desert family.
So here is what I am thankful for this week, this year,
always…Authors, like yourself, who bring nature a little closer to us. The
animals in your stories, the trees Peter studied, these are wonderful
ruminations for the mind to explore.
I’m thankful for family, not family by blood, but by choice,
because family that share DNA, must still choose to be the kind of family I’m
thankful for, the kind that supports each other and drives or flies hours just
to share a dinner and moments together. If some happen to share microscopic
markings, great, but the strongest of bonds are made by the heart, mind and
soul.
There is a strength in circles, the ones we place around us
hold us up. My nephew, who owns an important part of my heart, sent that photo,
because he knows me. And because he knows me, he knows of you. And that made me
as happy as anything else. I like my circle and I’m glad you are in it.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Loraine
