Thirty Days of Thankful, Days 11-20 (Thoughts from November 2013, reposted from Facebook)

1. Thirty Days of Thankful #11:

   
   Like so many others today,
   we are thankful for the freedoms we have
   and the people who gave up their time,
   their comfort,
   their families,
   and sometimes their last breaths
   in defense of freedoms
   for us
   or for others around the world. 

   We honor those
   whose lives have been changed 

   because of their service, 

   changed in visible
   or invisible
   ways.
   Veterans,
   thank you.
   May you feel our respect.

   Peace.
   
   
   
   

   Thirty Days of Thankful #12:

   
   

   I am thankful for people who have made me laugh.
   A sampling includes
   Steve Martin and his happy banjo,
   Gary Larson with his Far Side cartoons,
   Carol Burnett
   (and her local sister Gwen Guenter Crandell)
   and Tim Conway,
   Sandra Boynton's turkey,
   Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singing in the Rain (Every. Single. Time.)
   Garrison Keillor on NPR,
   Gilda Radner,
   Jonathan Winters,
   Chuck Thomas
   who told me a joke every Sunday for four years,
   Mary Ann Strasavich
   who is cut from the same cloth,
   Carol DeSantis and Jill Innes
   who makes me smile from thousands of miles away,
   Irene Irene Moore Hartzfeld, Guidance Counselor,
   and Luke Shaffner
   who started early
   by wearing his underwear on his head,
   and MANY others
   but today is a school day
   with the first snow on the ground
   and I have chores.
   You know who you are.
   
   I am also thankful to family
   and friends
   and total strangers within a twenty-foot radius
   who have endured my laughter.
   Sorry,
   but it was funny.
   
   I am thankful
   that remembered laughter
   can help us through hard days.
   Kate's extended family survived Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan,
   but the battle is not over.
   Thanks for your prayers and support.

   Thirty Days of Thankful #13:

   
   We are thankful for friends that are like family
   and family that are good friends.
   This week Den and Dave
   are enjoying the hunting hospitality
   of the Montana Rensels.
   Let's hope no one sits
   on a prickly pear cactus
   this year.
   Some requests
   are a bit much to ask of friends, 

   even if they are like family....

    

   Thirty Days of Thankful #14:

   
   I am thankful that a pomegranate has so many arils.
   Why?
   For years, a Shaffner expression of love was
   "I love you
   to the end of the the road
   (as far as young boys were allowed to travel)
   ...and back!"
   as well as the
   surreptitious three winks
   from across a room.
   
   But today
   as Anna and Lucy and I were dissecting a pomegranate
   to release the juicy arils,
   "I love you more
   than the arils in a pomegranate" became
   "I love you more
   than the trees in a forest."
   "I love you more
   than the countries,
   ummm, people
   in the world."
   "I love you more
   than the drops in a shower."
   
   Of course,
   "infinity" trumps everything.

   
   

   Thirty Days of Thankful #15:

   
   I am thankful for my mom,
   Aileen Rensel,
   and what she has meant to so many people.
   She made it a personal goal to abolish "ain't,"
   and elucidated the rules of "lie" and "lay."
   She taught more than secondary English,
   she taught respect,
   "Yes ma'am!"
   Mom introduced a few people to their future mates,
   and many more people to Jesus Christ.
   Today I took Anna and Lucy to visit Mom.
   I don't think she saw their shining eyes
   or fancy dresses
   but I think she felt Anna's strong grip
   and Lucy's gentle kiss.
   Mom spends much of her time
   "seeing through a glass darkly,
   but soon face to face."
   
   I am also thankful
   for my adopted big sister Carol Yohe
   who treated us to dinner
   and admired pigtailed princesses
   who dance
   and drop forks
   and tell goofy jokes.
   
   The Lord giveth
   and the Lord taketh away.
   Blessed be the name of the Lord.

   
   

   
   

    

    
   

   Thirty Days of Thankful #16: 

   
   I am thankful for the perfect timing
   that allowed Den
   to see a fresh grizzly track
   before it melted
   or was covered with new snow.
   And also that it wasn't
   THAT fresh.
   
    

   
   

   Thirty Days of Thankful # 17:
   
   On this rainy Sunday morning
   I am thankful for grace.
   Not the physical kind of grace
   of a ballet dancer
   (or lack thereof,
   like in the movie Miss Congeniality
   where Sandra Bullock
   walks out all gorgeous after her makeover
   to the tune "Mustang Sally"
   and then she trips.
   Spectacularly.
   Love Sandra Bullock!)
   Instead,
   I am thankful for the grace where God,
   when he looks at me
   and my mix of best efforts and selfishness,
   sees Jesus instead.
   May I extend an imitation of that grace to others,
   and if I don't,
   trip me.
   That will force me to look up.
   
   

Thirty Days of Thankful #18:

We are thankful for the companionship
found in marriage.
After eight days apart,
it's back to Den makes the coffee,
Sue makes the toast.
Hooray for friendship in the midst of the mundane!

The cats are also glad
for the return
of their favorite companion.

Thirty Days of Thankful #19:

We are thankful for jobs,
both paid and unpaid.

Den finds great satisfaction in a filled woodshed,
winter tires installed on Gilda the ancient Volvo,
and the snow blower now on the John Deere.

Sue likes her new school. 
Penfield Elementary has interesting coworkers,
new smiles,
trees on the playground,
big rooms,
lots of storage,
and a freckled strawberry blond who,
when Sue wore her old glasses by mistake,
exclaimed, "Mrs. Shaffner!
You look like Bono!"

We are thankful for our jobs.
U2?

Thirty Days of Thankful #19 1/2: 

We are thankful for clear skies
that allowed us
to watch our second Wallops Island rocket launch
in two months,
thankful for technology
that allowed us to message Luke Shaffner
immediately after the launch
so he could explain what we saw--
rocket stages--
and thankful for Carol DeSantis
who let us know that it was happening
from Kuwait.
Kuwait!
Thank you for your service.

Thirty Days of Thankful #20:

I am thankful for my grandma,
Maud Waugaman Rensel.
She modeled enthusiasm
and creativity
and love for Jesus
and love for grandchildren,
all children, actually.
She let me play with her Christmas decorations
in the summer,
wear her jewelry
along with a lovely towel cape
and introduced me
to the invisible admiring crowds
as "Charlotte,"
let me eat carrots right from the garden--
"a little dirt gives it flavor,"
made cut-out cookies for me to paint,
sewed clothes for my Barbie
with Tiny Little Stitches,
and held my hand
as I walked every rock wall on Brady Street
on the way to Bible School.
She was there
soon after I took my first breath;
I was there
when she took her last.

I was making cut-out cookies
with Anna and Lucy last week
when from a deep wrinkle of my mind
came Maud's voice,
"Corn syrup makes icing hard and shiny."
Thanks Gram.
Miss you.