On Giving Thanks
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
This year will be the first Thanksgiving that I have ever spent without my mother. Her turkey gravy, chocolate chip cheesecake, jewel eyes. It takes a long time to process loss and absence, and maybe that work never really gets done. Everything seems more fragile to me now, and also more heartbreakingly beautiful.
But I am also aware, this Thanksgiving, of all those who are and who have fundamentally been here. Once I wrote a book about friendship, and still: I don't understand the mystery, I don't get how it happens. All year long I've been made lucky by others—forced to take another look at things, gutted out by laughter, invited onto a roof deck to get a sunset view of the city I love. Listen to this, they've said. Think about this.
Grass dies down to seed so that it can be grass again.
So that I am grateful, a word that needs no adverb pomp.
I am also grateful this day to Toby Bloomberg, who gave me room to think out loud about just why I write this blog—what it means, where I am trying to take it. That story appears today in her truly world-famous blog,
http://www.bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/.
Toby (and dear Nettie Hartsock, who made this connection for me), thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
6 comments:
Beth - Firsts after a loss are always difficult but as you write so elegantly, memories help ease our continued journey without that special person.
It was my pleasure to highlight your blogger story. I was charmed by Undercover and the simple but complex lessons that you brought to life.
Thank you for your kind words about Diva Marketing (blog).
Your Fan,
Toby
Dear Beth, you've stated so beautifully the after effects of losing someone who meant so much to you. It's as though they've somehow opened your heart up as they departed, making you see and feel things more intensely.
I wish you peace this Thanksgiving holiday.
Lisa Guidarini
Dear Toby, Dear Lisa,
Thank you. The words from you both resonating deeply this morning.
May your own holidays be full of good, sweet things. You've been enormously generous in reaching out to me.
Beth
Hi Beth -
I discovered your blog in the beginning of the month (after listening to your interview with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett - see comments Nov. 2) - and have read your entries since - thanks! It seems you always have “something” there for me, a little golden nugget. And your photographs just add that little extra - a great inspiration to a fellow woman/writer/photographer/human being..... Again. Thank you!
As for the blogging world in general, it is a completely foreign territory for me. How do you navigate through this world wide conversational network? I just read your story through “Blogger Stories” (yes, you are a true painter of words....) and tried to find some other entries I could relate to. It seems there is a lot out there which is just time consuming reads..... Don’t want to be negative, but.... how do you find blogs that are worth their while? I suppose that is a completely impossible question to answer.....Perhaps I just have to rely on those happy coincidences, which might not be so accidental after all.....who knows.....
Grete:
You have always been so generous with your words, Grete, and I appreciate them. I find it absolutely amazing, these connections made through a forum such as this.
I have encountered some beautiful blogs out there...developed by people with a point of view, who have something specific to say. And I think that perhaps that is the key to this blog world. I find it daunting, too; I probably spend far too much time thinking about what I want to say, going out and hunting for images that might work.
I don't know who your favorite authors and photographers might be, but I would go to Amazon.com Connect and see if they are keeping blogs. Some bloggers are doing really great research that they are sharing. Some are artists and illustrators posting their work. I, too, am learning how to find my way out here, and I am grateful to people like Toby Bloomberg and Lisa Guidarini, both of whom have exceptional blogs themselves, true content to share.
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