"We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing…"

   Just to be invited to sit at such an elegant Thanksgiving table is a blessing. To imagine those who will occupy each chair is to experience the gratitude that comes from the presence of family.

   This table from my grandparents has hosted  Thanksgivings since 1911. This year seventeen will gather around it. You can tell by the high chair at the far corner that one of these is still a baby. We assume she cannot yet understand Thanksgiving. But, maybe she can. 

   Little Caroline, barely a year into this world, will surely experience what is most important about this occasion: The warmth of love's presence.

   The air will send her the taste of pleasant scents. The same air will host laughter & prayers & the sound of caring voices.

   She will receive the touch of those eager to caress her baby's skin. She will hear the songs of Thanksgiving. Beyond words, she will experience the rhythms of a language she cannot yet speak.  

   Caroline will also see who is smiling & who is not. Who is angry & who is sad & who wears the secret mask of worry.

   She has more than five senses, of course. Her soul carries the knowing that matters – the awareness that she is loved. 

   Caroline does not need "to ask the Lord's blessing." In an important way, neither do we. We can look into her eyes & into the eyes of everyone who gathers around the table of Thanksgiving.

   Consult the blood that nourishes you, listen to the messages enriching your every fiber & feel the skin that wraps you for life's journey.

   Blood & soul & skin know we need not ask God to bring us anything. We can, instead, recognize the Thanksgiving that is already before us & within us. 

-Erie Chapman