Eyrealm: THANKSGIVING CARD

As many of you know, we have been sending out a Thanksgiving Card instead of a Christmas Card every year since we’ve been married. Richard writes an always thought-provoking poem and we try to send a current picture or two. We used to spend days addressing, licking and stamping the envelopes to be sent by snail mail, but we’ve gotten lazy in our old age and have resorted to the ease of the digital world. Here is the card for this year:

Happy Thanksgiving Beloved Family and Friends!
Love, Rick and Linda (keep scrolling...some good stuff at the end)

TAKEFORGRANTED VS. THANKSGIVING
A poem in three parts

1. The Glimpse and the Guilt

A glimpse—for just a moment, as she taught our grandkids,
I saw Linda as a Light Angel—the vision came, strong and sure,
—then it faded.

For that instant I knew that, as much as I always love and appreciate her—
Day to day, every day—
There is another level—one that reaches into glory.

At times, unbidden, other brief glimpses come—
Of earth, of family, of my own body,
Supernal little knowings, suffused with pure perspective,
And generating a flash of unspeakable gratitude and clarity.

These glimpses accuse and convict me of my less-aware usual state, and
Of the universal, tragic, human sin of takeforgranted—
Getting used to glory—to the point where we don’t see it anymore,
Don’t feel it.
Desensitized to the Divine.

Could sin be defined as what robs us of joy?

2. A Corollary

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil,” said Burke,
“Is for good men to do nothing.”
A corollary:
“All that is necessary for the victory of flat, mediocre takeforgranted boredom,
Is for passion and striving and deep-feeling to drag and diminish.”

The numbing, car-chase super-hero movie enthralls,
With special effects and cheap thrills,
And separates us from the soul stirring nuance of a Vivaldi concerto.

Excess technology and endless data dumb us down from art and excellence;
Routine and plenty rob us of mind-stretching challenge;
Concrete and convenience pave over rugged, real nature,

Can we keep all of the new and the now,
But learn to juxtaposition it with what it threatens to replace?

3. The Joy Thief

Gratitude, the Joy Catalyst,
Is constantly challenged by takeforgranted,
Which shoves down and submerges awareness and appreciation
Holding them under where they can’t breathe, beneath the dull weight
Of ease and entitlement.

At Thanksgiving, can we swim back up into consciously thankful joy?

HAPPY THANKSGIVNG
The Eyres

Below...At Grandma's Ruthie's funeral with all our grown kids in October:
(left to right)
Shawni, in Arizona with Dave and their five, 16, 15, 12, 9, and 7
Josh, in Arizona with his third grade students
Charity, in Palo Alto with her middle school students
Saydi, in Boston with Jeff and their four, 9, 7, 5, and 2
Tal, in Manhattan with Anita and 2-year old Annina
Linda, on a plane with Rick
Rick, on a plane with Linda
Noah, in Orange County with Kristi and their five, 7, 5, 3, 2, and a little gal on the way
Saren, in Ogden with Jared and their five, 13, 12, 10, 8, and 8
Jonah, in Maui with Aja and their five, 12, 9, 6, 3 and a little guy on the way
Eli, in Washington D. C. but headed for NYC with Julie and 1-year old Zara

At our family reunion at Bear Lake in July including our Bulgarian "daughter" Eva, husband Adam (far right) and their three, 11, 8 and 6. Can you tell that the wind is blowing about 50 mph? I guess that’s hard to see since there are so many of us. We look a little like an ant colony!