Happy Thanksgiving, Mendocino County!
On a day of rest, gratitude, and company, we offer Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s poem “Thanksgiving” and Henry Osswa Tanner’s painting “The Thankful Poor”.
Wilcox lived from 1850-1919. She lived through the United States falling into the Civil War, the rise of the automobile, and the First World War. Her poem reminds us to be grateful for the small miracles of life.
Tanner’s painting depicts a black grandfather and grandson, meditating on a simple meal, a light cast from a nearby window. Their posture suggests sincerity, purpose, and acknowledgment of their daily bread.
On this Thanksgiving Day, ask yourself: what are you thankful for?
Thanksgiving
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.
Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hand about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives,
And conquers if we let it.
There’s not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past’s wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.
Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble;
Far-seeing is the soul, and wise,
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.
We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o’er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.
