Giving Thanks for Boundless Gifts

I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude lately.  With the interminable election season behind us and the challenges left in the wake of Sandy, you can easily feel humbled and quieted.  This week also brought to our family and close-knit community the loss of a dear dear friend, Marian Wolf and pillar of our local community.  Her life was built around her generosity to the people whose lives she touched; and there are so many.  I am quieted and humbled but also saddened by this loss in particular.  But then there is the gratitude.  How fortunate to have had our lives intersect, to have witnessed the love and joy she radiated for her 2 sons and more recently her daughter-in-law, to have sat many times at her overflowing, scrumptious, festive table to share her intricate homemade delicacies and superior baked desserts as well as intellectual and social conversations, to have had the door to her home always open to me (and others) for book clubs, recipes, knitting, July Fourth picnics or even to share the 2004 presidential debates on her large-screen television with our exchange student from Germany, and to learn the secrets of Trader Joe’s ‘Three Buck Chuck’ and chocolate-covered anything!! I am quieted and humbled and filled with gratitude for someone who has so fully touched my life.  Having left Sukkot behind with the fallen leaves and warmer temperatures, I carry Marian's gifts moving forward towards a season of giving thanks. 

Source: Google Image