What do we celebrate on Thanksgiving?

 

AnExtraordinaryDay.net | Thanksgiving | Fall Tablescape | Wooden Bowl of Plenty | Harvest cornicopia

 

When I was a little girl, the front of the church would have a beautiful assembly of pumpkins and squash and corn stalks. Even then, it warmed my heart.  We would sing a song about the harvest being gathered in, and it seemed so big, like a great accomplishment.   And I would think of the glass canning jars filled with peaches and tomatoes that lined the shelves of the “turntable” in my mother’s cupboard….so heavily laden I could hardly make it spin an inch.  Harvest….that was what Thanksgiving was about.  Everyone gathered together in grateful song for the bounty of the harvest and prepared for the cold and snow and bleakness of winter.

 

AnExtraordinaryDay.net | Thanksgiving Centerpiece | Wooden trough bowl of gourds and wheat and pumpkins | Fall harvest tablescape

 

Looking back, I wonder, why?  Why harvest?  It wasn’t as if I lived on a farm, or had some direct relationship with the land as people did in the “olden” days.  I can’t answer that question.  Though I know Thanksgiving in small ways still centers around harvest, I’m learning to go beyond the one day celebration to making it a part of my life every day.  Giving thanks.

 

AnExtraordinaryDay.net | Thanksgiving quote by Edward Martin | Harvest Tablescape

 

How about you?  I’m guessing,  maybe like me, one day you realized that Thanksgiving wasn’t just a “day” but a way of living.

How have you developed the heart of gratitude?

What is it that you will celebrate this Thanksgiving?

 

AnExtraordinaryDay.net - Harvest Tablescape - Wood Trough filled with a cornucopia of Fall

My friend has a gift for putting an assortment of items together and making it all into a stunning presentation.  The other night she allowed me to photograph her lovely tablescape featuring this huge wooden trough filled with harvest of the season, colorful candles, and a boxwood topiary.  I am thankful for her friendship.

Side note: the author of the quote, essayist and poet Edward Sandford Martin was one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon and the first literary editor of Life magazine.

 

Grateful for the harvest and so much more,

Diane

  
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Comments

  1. Lovely! Very festive for Thanksgiving…thanks for sharing your inspiration, blessings!

    • Diane says

      Yes…she has quite the touch!
      Hope your weekend is extraordinary, Nancy!!

  2. Mel says

    Lovely photos……beautiful, colourful, warm arrangements.

    And being a midwest, farm country kinda gal, Thanksgiving was about harvest. And harvest genuinely WAS harvest–corn and beans, wheat….oh, and the bounty from the small gardens grown to supplement households during the wintering seasons. And history. Particularly this country’s history.

    It’s been interesting to broaden my thanksgivings to daily happenings. But it doesn’t replace Thanksgiving with a capital ‘T’. It just brings more ‘bounty’ to the table. 😉

    • Diane says

      Oh yes!! Thanksgiving with a capital “T” will always hold a special place. So grateful for the people who deemed it important to consider it a holiday.
      Thanks, too for the compliments! 😀

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