It’s Thanksgiving week here in the US and that means that gratitude and thankfulness are on my mind. To be perfectly honest, it can be a challenge to find those emotions given the current state of affairs . . . the pandemic and unvaccinated people, the acquittal of people who deserve to be convicted, the divisiveness in congress that trickles down to our own communities, the loss of women’s rights and so much more. It’s hard and sometimes what I need to do is take a step away from all of the things going on in the world and remember the good that is in my own small world. And please know that I realize the privilege I have in just being able to take that step back.

All of this is to say that on Saturday I celebrated Friendsgiving with my circle of friends. Kim and Ken came down to stay with us overnight and then we gathered at Sean and Michael’s. We ate fabulous food (I honestly can’t remember the last time I had mashed potatoes and gravy which made it taste all the better) and we told stories and we caught up and we remembered how last year we didn’t get the chance to be together. It was a really special afternoon and evening and I’m not just saying that because there was chocolate cream pie. We talked about all of the problems of the world I alluded to above and agreed that if we were in charge we would fix it all.

I came home with a full belly and a heart overflowing with love and I realized that gratitude is always within my grasp if I truly look for it. I hope you feel the same way.

On Saturday, I got my Pfizer booster. I went to a clinic in a neighboring community and the thing that warmed my heart was seeing so many kids getting vaccinated.

Most of the kids seemed pretty excited to be there but there was definitely some apprehension about the shot itself. There was one child, who was, to put it mildly, pretty distraught. His cries could be heard throughout the entire room and the reaction it had on the kids in line, well, you can imagine. But the waiting parents handled it well, keeping their kids calm and reminding them that everyone reacts differently to shots. I thanked the kids and parents who made eye contact with me, telling them they were doing a great job protecting themselves, their families, and their community.

As for me, my only reaction to the booster was a sore arm. I’m grateful to be boosted as we head into the holiday season and winter.

Dale and I have been talking for quite a while now about buying a camper. As a result, I regularly check Facebook Marketplace for used campers for sale and yesterday morning there was one listed that I thought was worth going to look at. I messaged the person who listed it and he gave me the address and his phone number and said it was parked behind his business and unlocked. I told him we’d drive over in the afternoon.

When we got there, the camper was actually locked. I messaged him and said, it’s locked . . . and he replied “sale pending”. Nothing else, just sale pending. I responded with, “it would have been nice if you had let me know so that I didn’t drive over when it wasn’t even available,” to which he said, “do you think I contact 100 people that are coming? says pending on the ad.” That was the end of our communication.

And really, it’s not a big deal. It was a Sunday afternoon and a drive while listening to the football game was not a bad way to spend it. In all likelihood the camper was probably smaller than we wanted, which was actually part of the reason why I wanted to look at it . . . to visualize just what 18ft of living space would be like. And the reality is that it was not in great shape from what we saw of the outside despite the fact that the inside photos he posted made it look practically new. In other words . . . we would not have purchased it.

But.

He was rude. And there was really no reason to be rude, was there? I wasn’t looking for more than an acknowledgement that he told me it would be available to look at and that changed without any contact from him. Maybe something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, someone got there before you and they want to buy it and I didn’t have the chance to let you know.” Is that too much to expect in this world we live in now?

I realize I sound like a cranky old lady, and maybe that’s where I’m headed, but I believe in courtesy, I believe in common decency, I believe in kindness. And I believe you ought to communicate with a potential buyer when something you are selling is no longer available.

It’s the polite thing to do.

On my mind this week is the arrival, in earnest, of autumn. We’ve had unseasonably warm weather here for weeks but yesterday things took a cooler turn and it made me realize that I need to start attending to the list of fall chores I made a few weeks ago.

I’ve done some things, like bringing plants into the mudroom overnight to get them used to being inside again. In fact, my two giant Boston ferns are coming with me to work today to spend the winter at the library. Cross your fingers I have success this time, it’s always dubious. I’ll be bringing the rex begonias over the next week, too. I’ve always updated the window boxes with pumpkins and mums, I’ve called to get the chimney cleaned (although they are behind and won’t be able to get here until early November), I bought (and Dale planted) a limelight hydrangea, I contacted my lawn guy about a fall clean up, and Dale had firewood delivered. Oh, and I got my flu shot, too. That’s not on my fall chore list but it’s definitely an important fall activity.

I still have to cut back the perennials (the lawn guy will do this if I ask him to), clean up the raised beds (I’m waiting until we have a hard frost), buy and plant some bulbs, take the window AC out of the bedroom and kitchen windows, and take down and clean the hummingbird feeder.

All in all I’d say I’m in good shape and I’m feeling positive about sweater weather. How about you?

Several years ago, when I first started meditating, I read the book 10% Happier by Dan Harris. It’s a great introduction to the practice of meditating and one of the ways he recommends for quieting your mind is to picture yourself behind a waterfall. In this analogy, the water is your thoughts and because you are behind them they can just flow by and not let them impact you.

This process never worked for me. I could never quite picture what it would be like to be behind the waterfall, you know?

And then I went to Iceland. And I saw lots and lots of waterfalls. And I actually got the opportunity to stand behind one at the Sky Lagoon. As I stood there, with a stone wall behind me and rushing water falling down in front of me . . . I got it. I could hear the water and it was loud. I could even feel the water splash on me occasionally. But it didn’t really impact me . . . I was separate from it, even though it was there. Just like my thoughts when I’m meditating. They are there and sometimes they are loud and sometimes they distract me but mostly I can just let them go and settle into myself without being impacted.

I find it so interesting that something like this, which I read about and tried and then discarded, came back around for me and worked for me in a positive way.

Sometimes the lessons we need to learn just take a while to become relevant.