We gather together

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gather

During my workday, as a toddler teacher, I am often heard through out our school

saying to my brood of little chicklets

"Let's sing a gathering song."

And we all sit down together...well...we do our best...some of us are toddlers.

It re-groups us when we are getting a little out of control.

It re-centers us so we can move as a single unit to the next activity.

It calms us.

I have to admit that Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday.

It's always seemed like a lot of work for very little payback.

While I do find a certain happiness in serving my family....

Thanksgiving is a lot of special, time consuming food, 

and a lot of clean-up.

These past few years though, I have been focusing more on the gathering.

I've been thinking about how gathering together as a sort of funky tribe

of family and friends centers us, and calms us,

and grounds us in terms of how time in our families will be

and how and where memories will be placed.

~Grammy always made mincemeat pie with hard sauce

because my dad liked it 

~ that was the year it snowed so hard 

 we had to drive home in a crazy blizzard

~One year we played one of those games where you had to say

something you liked about every one else in the room...

it took forever, everyone cried...we're never doing it again.

~Remember the year the oven broke and we had to cook the turkey at a friend's house

which was just a short drive across town...

every 45 minutes to baste...we took turns.

A group of geese are called a gaggle, a bevy of doves, a kettle of hawks,

a rafter of turkeys...

 a gathering of people...

hearts and souls and brains and tummies

singing a gathering song

lighting candles

and making memories

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

An InLinkz Link-up