I just wanted to kick off this Holiday Week (USA anyway) with.....

by OnTheWayOut 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  OnTheWayOut

  .....Best wishes for everyone. In case you (or I) get busy and don't get a chance to say it later, Happy Thanksgiving!

  

  But seriously, no matter your situation, please remember those that care about you and enjoy their company:

  
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  purplesofa

  back atcha!
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  mrsjones5

  Yep! back at ya OTWO.

  I think thanksgiving should extend over the four day weekend. That should cover the jws.
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  talesin

  May the holiday season bring many good times, starting with the Thanksgiving feast through to New Year's.
  
  Happy Turkey Day, my American compas!

  t
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  Theocratic Sedition

  My Thanksgiving..................

  Happy friggin holidays! I'm kidding, hope everyone has an ok Thursday. At least a day off. Be safe.
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  GLTirebiter

  Remember what the holiday is about, as Licoln eloquently stated it 149 years ago:

  The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

  No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
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  Hortensia

  Happy T-day, everyone. You can make that Turkey or Thanksgiving day, whatever.
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  d

  Happy thanksgiving and peace to all.
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  OnTheWayOut

  TS, you scared me with that one. Halloween is over- no more trick holidays, just treats.

  All of you responded with such wonderful thoughts. I just wanted to add that, regardless of my personal feelings about religion and spiritual celebrations, we have escaped the drudgery and mental prison and I feel the need to find joy in doing whatever Watchtower doesn't want me to do- including holidays.

  Thanksgiving means so many different things to different people. Whatever it means to you, share it. If you cannot share it openly as a celebration, then share it in secret with those that have also escaped the mental prison.

  I told my JW wife that we were meeting my JW mother and other family for lunch on Thursday, then we were meeting my non-JW family for dinner. She balked a bit at the idea saying, "I don't celebrate Thanksgiving." I fired back with, "Your religion doesn't frown on eating and spending time with family. You don't have to celebrate anything and you can give thanks or not to anyone or anything you want to give thanks to, or not."

  She realized she should go along. It was not just to appease me, but she managed to see how silly avoiding family to feel like she followed some unwritten rules really was.

  Happy Thanksgiving all, and enjoy jumping into the "holiday season" that it kicks off.
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  snakeface

  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

  I remember, when I was a regular pioneer... my congregation had 8 pioneers. A few were wives of elders. One of these elders (whose wife was a Reg Pio) got a turkey from his job as a Thanksgiving gift. They decided since we all were off from work that day, why not have a "get together"? The sister cooked the turkey with all the traditional side dishes - stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and invited the other 7 of us over there. It was the most delicious turkey dinner I have ever had! During the dinner we all kept laughing and saying, "I bet the neighbors [or the brothers] would think we're celebrating Thanksgiving if they saw us..."

  But of course we weren't...we were just having a get-together and eating food... we sort of joked about it among ourselves for quite some time afterward.

  Anyway, this year I am doing something extravagant for Thanksgiving. You see, every year (since my "freedom") my brother invites me to his home, and some friends invite me to theirs. I alternate each year; one year I go to my brothers and the next year to this friend's home. This friend...he and his wife get up very early and cook 2 turkeys (2 different recipes) and all the go-withs, then they drop all that food off at their church where others have a dinner for the homeless. Then my friend and his wife return home and cook 2 more turkeys and all the go-withs, and have their own dinner with friends and family. It is wonderful! But this year since I am a pilot I am flying myself to another city, and my brother and his family will meet me there, and we'll eat at a restaurant that this other friend owns and is the chef there. Meanwhile the other friends will save some leftovers for me; I will visit them Friday and take them flying after I eat over there.