Let Us Give Thanks/ Thanksgiving

 Let Us Give Thanks

By the Rev. Max Coots

Let us give thanks for the bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and, though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends....with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms.

For feisty friends as tart as apples.

For continuous friends, who like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends as complex as cauliflower and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages. as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips , can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally , for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life  thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

Grandpa Sherwood and granddaughter Kathy, 1985?