Happy Thanksgiving

Its been a bit of a weird Thanksgiving. It has been a good and special weekend in its own way but not like you might think of when it comes to Canadian Thanksgivings.

The downer part first: We opened our eyes on Saturday morning with a bit of heartache hanging on from the week we had known. I conducted a funeral on Friday. It was for the husband of one of my friends. He was 75 but still too young and left quite a hole. During the week we received news that a woman in our community passed suddenly. I didn’t know her well at all, but Russ did and the sadness hit him hard and still is. We both feel for the families so much. On Wednesday I met with a friend of mine and her family to plan a funeral for later in the month. After that meeting I called Russ and said, “when are you going to be home? I need a beer.” He said, “Morgan’s not home, lets have charcuterie and forget about supper.” It wasn’t our healthiest meal.

Heartache was pretty close to us as Saturday dawned. However, we couldn’t linger and lolly. We had to get going. Russ was moving cows from one river pasture across the road to another and he invited some friends and family to join in doing it. It went well and they were back at the house for Brunch by 10:30. I was pretty much ready but had been boogie-ing to get to that point. It wasn’t my best brunch but not bad, I tried a yeast dough cinnamon bun for the first time in ages and had some challenges. It all worked out and we had some very fun visiting as the 13 of us sat around the table.

Saturday was a bit of an international day. One of the cowboys in the morning was new to us, a woman from Switzerland working on a nearby farm. Like Anja (our Swiss friend who joined us for six weeks of calving season), she is great on horses, positive, kind and we enjoyed her alot. Saturday afternoon had me heading to town to conduct a wedding, Russ was invited as well. It was a small wedding in the bride and groom’s home. There was a language barrier which I had accommodated by using google translate to make the whole wedding program in both English and Russian. I had thought I would pass my program to the couple after each part of the service and they would read to themselves what I had just said. It turned out that a guest was there who could read aloud the Russian, so we took turns through the whole ceremony, me reading out the English, she reading out the Russian and the bride and groom reading their vows to each other in Russian. It felt like such a culturally rich experience to hear the words of love and committment read in two such different languages. The part that sticks with me from that part of the day was how much the guest thanked me for letting her be part of it. I thought, “are you kidding me, you saved the day!” She asked for my copy of the ceremony. I just love the fact that I got to share the experience of being the bearer of holy words and I sense that these moments altered how this woman sees herself. Following the wedding we sat around the dining table and shared a meal that the bride and groom had prepared. It was delicious, healthy, perfectly prepared, and lovingly presented. It was topped off with two cakes, we were given generous pieces of both. Russ describes it as a feast and said he could not eat for the rest of the day, even when offered cupcakes in the evening. We visited at the table for a good long while, struggling with the reality of language barriers but finding the common ground of humor and pictures of our lives, shared from our cell phones. Marveling at each others live added to the quiet joyful feel of the event.

I had mixed feelings about the plans for Saturday night. We were invited to join Jordanna’s family at the Haunted Corn Maze at Pierson to celebrate her birthday. Jordanna is Morgan’s girlfriend and we appreciate her so much, so, of course we were going, however, I absolutely hate horror stuff. I told the guys I would just stay in the car while everyone was walking through. However, I let myself be talked into full participation and I was glad I did. It was a gorgeous night. Very cool and crisp fall air, a sky full of stars, and a walk through a maze of massively tall corn stalks meant some memorable moments. There were times to scream within the maze, I kind’ve gave myself permission to be dramatic and it was actually rather therapeutic. It was scary but not horrifying, I could handle that. Plus, Russ held my hand the whole time. At one point I checked my pulse on my watch, it was 152, I was clearly experiencing some stress, but overall it was just really unique and the night air was good for my soul. Afterwards we had a good visit back at the White’s place, we got to sing Happy Birthday to Jo and it topped off a pretty cool day.

Since Thursday I had been feeling like I was starting to get sick. But it stayed very low key and all was well. I got my jobs done. However, in the night it broke loose and I was very sick yesterday. I am still coughing and using the kleenex box alot but I have energy today. Its hard being sick. I only took 375 steps yesterday and I had to convince myself to do just about every one. At times like that I tend to thinking that I am never going to feel like myself again. But today dawned and Io and behold, I think I might just be able to tackle the week ahead. It was hard to message the friends who were having us for a Thanksgiving dinner and say, “sorry we can’t come.” There were no Thanksgiving flavors at our house this year, Russ did all the cooking, it was what he could quickly rustle up after getting off his horse. However, as this Thanksgiving weekend ends there is his efforts and more to be thankful for. Despite living my life in a quiet area where I have few formal opportunities I feel like life is really really interesting and I am very grateful for that.

I have not felt much like taking pictures this week, as I looked over my camera roll that was pretty obvious. However, there were lots of pictures there due to the groups I am part of. It struck me how much richer my world is because people share. I don’t always have the time or zip to say something in reply but the pictures move me. I am thankful that the world is made more large, I am allowed to see beauty and I get to see the faces of those I love because of what others can share and do share.

In ranch news, there is a new horse at our place this week. She is an 11 year old thoroughbred with a racehorse tattoo stamped in her lip. She came to us after Morgan rode her through the ring at a sale recently. He was helping out our Aunt Karen who was selling it. Well long story short, we didn’t buy it that day, but bought it from the buyer. We are thinking we have some pregnant horses around here, so in order to have the right amount of good riding horses next spring when its calving season we took the chance to get this one we feel good about. Morgan has been working with her alot this week and it is going well. Her name is Shadow but we are also referring to her as “Anja’s horse.” We don’t have a good picture.

Well that is the scoop here. It was an interesting week. Very interesting. As thankful as I am for that I am hoping this week means time at my desk and in my laundry room. There is build up in both places!