Happy Thanksgiving Day AD 2024!
Off for the Week | Recordar es vivir.
Greetings to All!
As today is Thanksgiving I’d wanted to wish you all a great feast day. Though we Catholic Christians thank God in every Eucharist (which literally means “thanksgiving”), it is good that we set out one day each year to thank God for all our blessings. I’m very thankful for my family, my faith, and my country within which at least I know I’m free.
I’m going to take a break in the writing until Sunday, December 8th to enjoy my first Thanksgiving as a retiree with family and friends with no worries. This is good because the last two entries were painful to write, and I need a break from that too.
In Puerto Rico we have a saying:
Recordar es vivir.
That means, literally, to remember is to live. Not to relive, or even survive, but to live, to be transported with one’s imagination to the exact time and place of the recalled memory.
I fear there’s a corollary to this lapidary statement:
Recordar es sufrir.
That means, to remember is to suffer. To live a memory is also to suffer in it, if it entailed suffering in the first place. Old wounds ache, while others may bleed again. This is tough going for people of my temperament.
But these also hurt less when suffered again. Some of the edge is gone, more serenity is in place in one’s soul. Suffering, then, is good in this sense: to suffer is to heal.
Enough. Enjoy your holiday. If you’re in the military deployed OCONUS, I’ve been there, done that. I feel you. I’ll include your intentions tomorrow on our daily Rosary.
Let us praise the Lord and give Him thanks!