Birds sing on Thanksgiving Morn

When I awoke at six this morning I heard birds singing in my backyard. How I miss the little creatures as they began their trek to warmer climes with many of us to follow later this year. Why is it that the sounds of birds invariably lift our hearts?

Walter came to visit yesterday. The one thing this 90-year-old sage hasn't mastered is using the computer. 'Perhaps I will,' he told me, 'if I'm still alive.' He'll spend Thanksgiving with his girlfriend Amy and her three-month-old baby Jaiden who spent a harrowing two months at Children's Hospital. I'd met Amy and baby previously, before the hospitalization, when all was well. She nursed the baby at the kitchen table and actually asked if it offended me.

I told her I'd nursed both my kids. Amy started her own business but had to give it up to take care of Jaiden full-time because of his medical problems. The prognosis is excellent and she couldn't be a better mother. She's a devout Catholic. Walter said his own father, back in the 1920s, disabused Walter of the notion of a deity by introducing young Walt, who grew up in the seaside town of Bristol, PA, to the writings of one Mr Ingersoll.

Did I tell you I felt a vast sense of relief when I too decided my relations with the Deity were nil, my prayers felt false, and I feel liberated at having declared yet again my deep pride in being Jewish and being a godless woman.

My gods are You, the people - my backyard maple (of course it's not mine) - and the water I gratefully drink each day.

My sister Ellen and I went apt. hunting for her yesterday. She needs a big place where she can store the stuff she sells on EBay. I suggested she move into my old apartments Village Green and found the following video. Click here.

When I was making my dinner salad last nite I remembered to cut up the lettuce into tiny pieces. I watched my hands nimbly tearing the Bibb lettuce and thought What a marvel are these hands. You simply command them to do something and presto, it gets done!

It can never be said I don't appreciate life. And this new window in my living room! A room air-conditioner was stuck in there until I had the idea of making a window out of it. I see rhododendrons with their sticky buds preparing to bloom next May when I come down the stairs.

Last nite I read a very moving piece in the Times by a veteran from the Afghanistan war. Here's the short piece plus my comment (the 5th one down) below it. Life is too thrilling not to get involved when we feel so moved.

Listen to your heart. Life is short, gone in a wink. Do it now.