Haaaaaaapppppppyyyyy Pre-Thanksgiving, my Friends! Isnt it both a happy and sad event that during the holidays, we tend to reflect on the people and the circumstances that have shaped our lives? Happy because we set aside time to do that which is important, and sad, because many of us do so only during this season instead of the rest of the year, too! All that aside, each year I write a little piece for the holidays - one that, hopefully, prompts both reflection and change. Last year, I shared a series of cool quotes that made me smile a bit and made me remember those important things in one’s life journey. This year, I bow to a far better writer: the statesman and orator who, as president of our country, proclaimed Thanksgiving to be a holiday way back in 1863. This year, may you read his words (or attend his movie) and reflect upon the true meaning of this holiday, and take time to give thanks: for family, friends, opportunities, health, and of course, for life, itself! ( see below...) May your Thanksgiving be filled with blessings, hope, and thanks...(okay, and maybe a little pumpkin pie, too!) -------- Lincolns Thanksgiving Proclamation Washington, DC--October 3, 1863 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 cannot 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, tranquility, 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 3rd day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. Abraham Lincoln By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State. Be well, travel safely, and Enjoy…have a Peaceful and Restful day with your families! Jimmy p.s. and thanks again for taking the time to read this and don’t forget to undo the top button on your pants after your meal! :)
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 14:41:00 +0000
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