Recently, during a hiking trip to Lake Conestee Nature Preserve, I encountered an American Bittern, beautiful, well camouflaged, a relative of the many herons I see at the park. I startled it as I walked across an observation deck access-ramp over beaver pond water, where it was hiding underneath. My encounter with the bittern stirred some old memories, causing a déjà vu moment which I could not pinpoint at the time.
Then I remembered.
Read MoreNo one else in my family remembers this. Over twenty years ago, I told my mother and my sister this story from my childhood. They were both there when it happened. The story didn’t sound familiar to them. Maybe I just dreamed it, but I don’t think so. It feels much more like a memory than a dream. But I’m the only one who remembers Itty Bitty, the calico kitty.
Read MoreFor a five-year-old sharecropper’s son, every season is like a new life. The passage of time does not seem to register. All I knew was that the weather started warming up and Daddy started plowing the fields and planting the cotton. The bare-limbed trees in the forest that surrounded our house began to turn green. The grass in the front yard started growing again. Soon Daddy would be out there on Saturday mornings with a sling blade, mumbling words I was not supposed to repeat. The tall weeds and bushes on the side of the house, out past the clothesline, sometimes produced baby bunnies that would sleepily sun themselves, just this side of the tall weeds … until I tried to run and catch one.
Read MoreIn times like these, with so much violence across the country; with Covid-19 leading to so many deaths, so much fear, so much misinformation, so many questionable shutdowns; with social media giants, much of the technology sector, and portions of the financial sector acting separately or in concert to suppress speech; with capitalism, the great American engine for prosperity, heavily restricted by crushing regulations; with so many power-hungry leftist politicians in charge of our states; with so many deep-state groups and individuals holding back the country and her citizens, their rightful liberties, and hopes for a better future; with rampant voter fraud by shadowy criminals and crooked politicians attempting to steal an American election … it may be difficult, almost impossible, to find a reason to feel thankful on this Thanksgiving Day of 2020.
But on this day, like every day, but especially on this day - our day of Thanksgiving - we must think of the things in our lives for which we can give thanks. To do less would be to sully the memories of all good things gone by. On this day, like no other, it is our right and it is our duty to ourselves to be thankful.
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