My Thankful Bouquet

You don't need a lot of fancy materials to make a nice Thanksgiving Centerpiece. I am working on my 15th Thanksgiving, and my 15th centerpiece. Each one I have ever done has been made with materials found right outside, in nearly any yard. Leaves, grass, twigs, tree bark, even dried flowers from a spent up garden. Sometimes, if someone gives me flowers as a gift, I will dry them and use them in my centerpiece. The centerpiece is special. It is my Thankful Bouquet. Time to sit quietly in my making and reflect on the past year, thank the harvest and my blessings, and remember past Thanksgivings and who I shared them with. I cannot recall every centerpiece I've ever made, but some do come to mind easily enough. The first, of course, the one with the carnations that my husband had given me on our anniversary, or the one that I threw into the trash minutes before the meal in a fit of anger because my husband didn't want me to keep it on the table during the meal. Now I discreetly move the centerpiece off of the table before setting the food on it, and put it back when we're finished. He won that one. Mostly, I give thanks for the chance to make another year of thanks. It may sound corny, but Thanksgiving is my most important holiday. It is both the beginning and the ending of things. The end of growing and the beginning of being. The end of waiting and the beginning of celebrating. I keep that in mind as I build my Thankful Bouquet, and take the finished things, the ungrowing things, and give them a beautiful new life.