Besides counting blessings this week there was another Thanksgiving celebration October 15
This is the traditional week to take a few moments and count the mountain of blessings each of us has- no matter what our situation is. No matter what our “story” is, it is important to find silver linings in order to create a life worth living. Many of you may not realize there are two Thanksgivings celebrated in the Virgin Islands – Hurricane Thanksgiving on October 15, and the traditional one celebrated this Thursday.
Every October since 1726, the residents of the US Virgin Islands offer thanks for their safekeeping during the potentially lethal hurricane season that officially lasts from July through the end of October. The day has historically been observed by offering thanks to God for his protection during the season. The event had been losing its significance through several years of relatively mild hurricanes until the tradition was revived by the devastating Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn in 1995. The day is a national holiday across the islands and is marked with prayer and often with a celebratory meal in the evening.
Our traditional celebration this week will include seventeen members of our extended family who have joined us. Below is the prayer I will be saying at our Thanksgiving table. If you are around, let me know what some of your traditions are for this special family holiday. Until next time.
Getting together with our loved ones; feast, toast, enjoy the blessings of life – and give thanks. Thanks for life all around us, underfoot, and overhead.
Thanks for the ability to remember those we love as well as to forget how much we’ve been hurt; thanks for fine young bodies and old, venerable minds; for sun on our faces, the rain on the roof, and the food on the table grown by people we don’t even know.
Thanks that the jets overhead aren’t dropping their bombs, that our healing hands have a place to practice, that children are born every minute of the day, and that death is there to gather us up at the end.
And thanks for at least one day a year when we all take the time to get some perspective.
- Patrick Finley