It had been such a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. We were a week early celebrating as this was the best time for us to get together as a family. At bedtime the night before I told stories, read and sang songs just like I used to do when they were little. Then the next day, table set and ready, we prepared the feast.
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving – so many reasons to be thankful!
Destination Unknown
Later when the children had gone home, I made a greeting card for my nephew and his partner. They are expecting their first child. Such an exciting time. The soon-to-be parents are about to embark on a whole new adventure with so many hopes and dreams for this little baby.
As I was writing the first lines, I listened to an interview with legendary Tom Hanks. I heard the words, “you are about to start a journey and the destination is unknown”. Now, isn’t that the truth! We never know where life’s journey will take us. There will be dips and pot holes, twists and turns. Sometimes we will have to change focus and direction because of the unexpected. Sometimes the path will take us beyond our wildest dreams. And then what?
What do I search for now?
My mind went back to the bedtime stories and the poems I had read the week before. There was quite a mixture this particular day – mostly poems. Some were my own, others written by their dad and some written by well known authors like Shel Silverstein, Robert Service, Llewis Caroll, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And the list went on. I loved how they listened so intently, how they were moved by the depth of what they heard, and how they laughed. Yes, when a grandmother gets to snuggle in with her grandchildren and carry on that age-old tradition, the time is precious.
Having laughed our way through Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends“, it was the very last poem that did it.
The Search by Shel Silverstein
I went to find the pot of gold
That’s waiting where the rainbow ends.
I searched and searched and searched and searched
And searched and searched, and then –
There it was, deep in the grass,
Under an old and twisty bough,
It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine at last …
What do I search for now?
Yes, so many hopes and dreams when the journey begins. We have no idea where it will take us or what we will face along the way. There may even be rainbows that lead to the treasures we once longed for, but now no longer so. It reminds me of one of Harry Martin’s songs:
“We search for the things that we long for,
and we long for the things we can’t find.
When the fortunes we seek seem so close to complete,
we suddenly leave them behind.”
Yet, with the destination still unknown, perhaps we will think …
“What do I search for now?”
Life is about the journey, not the destination. Never stop reaching for the stars.
Happy Thanksgiving!
