To all our Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving. (This was a card we received from friends of ours - Brenda and Claude.)
As I said in the blog before last (September 28, 2008 Canada votes,) my family and I have much to be grateful for since coming to Canada, and much for which we are indebted to Canada and Canadians: subsidized education (elementary, high, college and university), hip replacement surgery, post-surgery unemployment benefits, the cancer treatment and other healthcare benefits we have received - to name just some of our blessings.
This Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada - a month earlier than in the U.S.A. Our family has taken to this Canadian tradition like ducks to water - or should I say Canada Geese? All at Kwa-McCann take this opportunity to thank God for all the blessings of the past year.
Every year up until now Ingrid has been the hostess for the family Thanksgiving Dinner, but this year Geoff and Miriam have invited us all to have Thanksgiving at their place. I can tell you, Ingrid can't wait. :-)
I found this really cool website that talks about the peculiarly Canadian Thanksgiving: "Proud Canadian Kids."
Our parish bulletin printed the following "Prayer composed by a Native American."
O Divine Gift-giver,
I stand beneath the endless waterfall
of your abundant gifts to me.
I thank you especially for all the blessings of life,
the most precious of all your gifts to me.
I thank you, ever generous One,
for clothing to wear,
for food and drink to nourish my body,
that you have bestowed upon me.
I thank you for the many joys of my life,
for family and friends,
for work that gives to me a sense of purpose
and invests my life with meaning.
I thank you as well
for the sufferings and trial of my life,
which are also gifts
and which, together with my mistakes,
are among my most important teachers.
Grant that I may never greet a new day
without the awareness of some gift for which to give you thanks.
And may constant thanksgiving
be my song of perpetual praise to you.
Father, a needy one stands before you,
I that sing am that one.
Native American Omaha Indian
