Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

My daughter Elizabeth lives in Somerville, Massachussetts, just outside of Boston.  She's a children's librarian in Cambridge and a deacon at her church.  She travels to Mexico once a year to volunteer at an orphanage and she and her partner Erica are in the process of becoming adoptive parents.  She loves her cat Rocky, enjoys the Beatles (and a host of musical groups I've never heard of), she's fond of odd sorts of craft beers (like Blueberry Ale) and is a tofu aficionado (she's a vegetarian!)  Liz is just a little bit of a thing.  She barely measures 4'10" tall, and weighs in at a real feather weight.

This week on Thanksgiving she's going to be running in a 4 mile race called the Gobble, Gobble Gobble.  Thanksgiving Day races always have cutesy names, the Turkey Trot being one of the more common of them.  Normally she runs 5K races.  "But," she told me on the phone,  "I can always walk the last part of it if I run out of steam."

Since she and I talked about her race this past weekend, I've been reflecting on the fact that her participation is something of a miracle in and of itself.  You see when Liz was born she had serious gross motor control issues and hyper-extended knees.  She was in a brace that bundled up half her body for the first six months of her life.  She didn't even sit up on her own for many, many months.  She then underwent all sorts of physical therapy and adaptive physical education through most of her growing years.  And now she's running in the Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.

I have much for which to be thankful this year.  My wonderful wife Linda, my three kids, my in-law children, my grandkids, my Mom, my friends, my work, my church, my co-workers, my freedoms as an American, food, shelter, music, books . . .  the list is almost endless.  But I am also grateful for things in my past, and at this moment, most especially, the doctors and nurses and therapists and teachers and others who helped my daughter grow into a young woman who can run a race on Thanksgiving--even if she ends up walking the last mile.

Thanksgiving blessings one and all!