Thanksgiving

I think thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's the only one that is still tied closely into it's original roots. It is at heart a harvest holiday so as I farmer it's one I value most. To consider really where all my food comes from, to be thankful for not just the people that raised it but also the animals and the grass and plants truly lets me sit down with a sense of wonder and a sense of being part of a huge system.

This year at one Thanksgiving we were talking about why Canadian Thanksgiving happens before American Thanksgiving. I said I though it was because Thanksgiving was a harvest holiday. "Oh really?" she said. "I guess that makes sense, I never thought about it.".

I was dismayed. here is my favorite holiday, the one that to my way of thinking is still relatively untainted by commercial profits. The holiday that encourages reflecting on what we are thankful for, which I know I still don't feel that I do enough.

This year, I am thankful for family and friends. For getting a chance to go to Argentina and finding out that my father is not weird because he eats the middle out of baguettes and then sticks sausages in, it's something Argentinians call "choripan." I am thankful for the chance to have my hands in the soil in Argentina, in Massachusetts, in New York. I am thankful for being welcomed into communities which honored my work, supported me and made me laugh. I am thankful for so many rich relationships which made me laugh and made me learn. I am thankful for the chance to start many days this year with my head pressed into the flank of Chloe, the dairy cow, and to end my days looking at the stars.