Around The Corner
Spreading Peanut Butter on Fresh-baked Bread
Thanksgiving provides a time for most of us to enjoy a holiday with family and friends. Just thinking of the day starts the saliva moving because the meal is a big deal. Oh, yes, and there are the football games. And the Turkey Day parades.
Yet for most of us, the meal and the football games and the parades are secondary. Thanksgiving Day is simply the gathering with the people we love that is the most satisfying, like spreading peanut butter on fresh-baked bread.
However, aside from those that I gather with, there are others who are important, those with whom my heart is tied. I am thankful for them. Some are friends of a lifetime who live both close and far away, others I have never met. As a writer, I enjoy a lot of the latter. Yet they are indeed my friends -- and I love them all.
If you want to make someone happy this Thanksgiving, I would like to share my "thanks-for-you habit," one that you, too, may want to implement. Several years ago, I started a practice that I do every November. Sometimes I do this prior to Thanksgiving Day and sometimes on Thanksgiving Day, depending on my time constraints. I make it intentional to spread peanut butter on fresh bread. Well, sort of.
Let me explain. I make it a point to write love notes to people who do not expect it. Sometimes I do it via e-mail, sometimes a hand-written note, especially to those who have no e-mail access who depend upon snail mail. I do not send e-mail forwards. I simply tell these friends, in my own words, what they mean to me. It may be a sentence or two or a paragraph or two, not long. In fact, sometimes all I write is, "I love you." Or sometimes I do not. Why? Because some people, no matter how delightful they are, might not be comfortable with such an intimate expression, so I simply say "I appreciate you -- more than you know." It means the same thing.
These "slices of bread with peanut butter" always return to me like boomerangs of love. Then, you see, I also get to savor the delicious peanut butter on fresh baked bread. For me, this is all a part of loving life. The late, well-known pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, who loved playing his instrument and also loved his audience, declared, "If you love life, life will love you back.' I agree.
Yet, we must remember that holidays are not always a fun time for everyone. Some of us endure sorrow. I think about the author/lecturer Leo Buscaglia, who wrote and spoke of love often and once wrote about judging a contest to find the most caring child. The winner was four years old. A neighbor's wife had died. The little boy went to the old man's yard, where the widower sat, and climbed onto his lap. The boy's mother inquired when he returned, "What did you talk about?" The child replied, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
Maybe this Thanksgiving, in addition to all the fun and joy of the day, it might be a time to help someone we know cry. Crying can be a healthy washing of the soul. We may not literally climb onto someone's lap but, in essence, we can help the cry turn into a smile with a love note.
Thus, may we all enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving, as we each share love in our own way. If you like, you are welcome to apply my quote to your life. "Live every day with intention -- to spread love around like peanut butter on fresh-baked bread." §
Betty Kossick has been a freelance writer since 1971. She lives in Ocala and considers herself a poet at heart. She can be contacted at bkwrites4u@cfl.rr.com.
