Bonus Episode: Thanksgiving Story
What are you thankful for, really?
When my daughter Lucy was 4 years old, my husband Carl, and I took her to a school-sponsored community event for families with small children. The theme was Thanksgiving and we would be singing songs and doing an art project.
We arrived a bit early, found our way to the school’s cafeteria and settled into three tiny chairs at a child size round table for 10. As more families arrived, the chairs and tables quickly filled up. My husband and I gave up our tiny chairs to little ones, and throughout the room, parents began to give up their chairs to children and then sitting on the floor.. As even more families arrived, older siblings began giving up their little chairs to younger kids.
By the time the event was to start, it was clear that the organizers had a much bigger crowd than expected. More chairs were brought in, but the tables were all filled. More families arrived, finding no chairs, no tables, they sat on the floor.
Nobody complained, everybody was in the holiday spirit and there was a group chuckle about the situation as the preschool teacher welcomed us and began the program.
She brought our attention to a large tree silhouette made of paper that was taped to the wall. On the tables were colorful construction paper leafs and chunky markers and crayons for the kids to write a word, with help from parents, or draw a picture of something they were thankful for. Then each child was to bring their leaf to the tree and parents would stick the leaf to a tree branch.
The result would be a tree emblazoned with all of the wonderful things that our community is thankful for.
Now 17, my daughter Lucy is and has always been one of the wittiest people on the planet even at 4. When it was time to make her leaf, My husband and I, sitting on the floor behind her chair asked Lucy what she was thankful for. Without missing a beat, she turned her head and out of the side of her mouth, in a low voice she said, “this chair”.
And so that is what she wrote on her leaf: This Chair
