Turkey and the Inner Eye

This Thanksgiving was a bit of a different one for me.

The spectre of Peter's death would not relinquish its hold from my thoughts. Nor should it have. 

As I have gotten to know thousands of people in my journeys, I am always flabbergasted at the turmoil and chaos in which people are embroiled. Poverty, Mental Strife, Family Problems, Personal Stuff and death.

Death is always there. Sometimes, in certain moments, I feel really claustrophobic knowing things about people that they would not normally tell someone outside of their family and friends. Usually people just blurt it out, or send it in an email. It's never easy to hear. I invariably have no response that could be profound as a response to a tragedy someone underwent or that someone is going through...

But what always saves the day is those same people. Invariable just when I am about to say, I feel your pain, or I share your loss...which I do...I mean, this life has seen a small part of common tragedy too...but the folks that come to me, who lean on me, also take my burden as well.

It's always a physical gesture that happens. A shrug, a "Well, you know...I do what I can", or a small smile, even a casual wink in my direction. It's the "It sucks, but I'm OK" gesture. 

Dealing with it.

Of all of the people I have listened to and whose stories I have read, there has not been one person who was not dealing with their problems, or coping somehow. Everyone was puting their foot in front of the other one and making the effort to not fly off of this planet! It's not just USAns, but I'm telling you, this county's people have a way of marching through and slogging it out and making it work, if it can. 

You have to know it in your heart that most people are dealing with something far beyond their power to control any kind of outcome. But to acknowledge it at all parts of the day would be, I think, the polarizing of tragedy.  I don't want people thinking of my story as being tragic. I want it to be a great adventure with obstacles and peril and triumph over adversity! There's nothing new in this... it's age old.

But even still...

As Thanksgiving wore on and I sang in a wedding for a clear-eyed couple, my mind in the briefest of moments would rest upon Peter. 

I didn't know him half as well as many others. But it didn't stop me from thinking about him and his family and all of the people he had touched over the years. This lead me to all of you, going through your own things right now, all of you putting your feet forward moving ahead. 

It's not a moving on thing. It's just plain-ol moving. 

So thank you for your thoughts for me and those infinitely closer to Peter and his family. This is what I was truly thankful for this past weekend...All of you all who are dealing with it.

best of luck and may the force be with you.

NG