Where the heart lives, as Thanksgiving nears

"Home," 5 x 7 watercolor greeting card

Thanksgiving Day, 13 days from now, will be different than any other as the pandemic has ravaged the country--except perhaps the first one.

Yesterday, 400 years ago, the Mayflower arrived in what is now Massachusetts Nov. 11, 1620, with 102 passengers. A year later, only 51 were alive to celebrate their first harvest and survival. Think about that...celebration mixed with sadness for all those loved ones they'd buried.

I always think of Thanksgiving as a family holiday, and as an adult, have enjoyed it more than Christmas.  It has been a time of gathering, of home--where the heart lives--even when traveling.

The gatherings will be smaller this year as a result of the disease, but like those first survivors 399 years ago, in this horrible year of disease, death, racism, violence and political chaos, we can still celebrate survival while mourning the tragedies and turmoil that  have saddened  and disrupted so many lives.