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A Joyful Noise

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2018 by Melodye Shore

More than these greens tossed with toasted pecans,
I want to serve you the hymn I sang into the wooden bowl
as I blended the oil and white vinegar.

More than honey ice cream
beside the warm pie, I want to serve you the bliss in the apples’ flesh,
how it gathered the sun and carried its luminousness to this table.
More than the popovers, the risen ecstasy of wheat, milk and eggs,
I want to serve you the warmth that urged the tranformation to bread.

Blessings, I want to serve you full choruses of hallelujah, oh so wholly
here in this moment. Oh so holy here in this world.

This beautiful poem, Thanksgiving, was penned by  Rosemerry Wahtola Trimmer. All photographs courtesy of my dear friend, Donna Sullivan.

I’m forever grateful for this opportunity to sing at Sunday Brunch with the Harlem Gospel Choir. I’m not a culinary expert by any means, nor am I a professional singer. But I do rattle around in the kitchen some, and I’m all about making a joyful noise!

I suspect that’s why this poem really resonates with me. It speaks to the savory-sweet truths about Thanksgiving. A tasty meal doesn’t require perfect recipes and the just-right serving dishes. It’s all about serving others–meeting your beloveds’ needs with compassion and grace. Abundance is sometimes equated with heaping plates and that uncomfortable, overstuffed feeling that follows. But in fact, a bountiful life is more accurately measured by our generosity of spirit. And here’s the essence of the poem, as I read it: When we prepare food with a song in our hearts, it nourishes everyone who gathers around our tables.  And when we are “wholly here in the moment,” we give and receive a gracious plenty.

Posted in: Donna Sullivan, Harlem Gospel Choir, joy, joyful noise, Poetry, writing Tagged: joy, joyful noise, poem, poetry, rosemary wahtola trimmer, thanksgiving, thanksgiving 2018

Art Challenge of the Week: Creating abundance

November 27, 2015 by Melodye Shore

“Abundance is not something we acquire,” Wayne Dyer once said, “It is something we tune into.”  I wholeheartedly agree. It’s not about having, or doing, or aspirational thinking. The Secret (if there is one) is to be fully present in each moment, wholly appreciative of the gifts available to us in the here and now.

It’s the ability to see a hummingbird’s nest for the iridescent promises it holds…

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And to greet unannounced guests as if they belonged, as if this were the plan all along.

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Abundance reveals itself when you wade, unafraid, into frothy waters.

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Sometimes it appears as if by magic–shimmery bouquets from a bubble wand, for instance.

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It presents itself in expansive moments of peaceful awareness,

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Expresses itself as joyful noise or a whispered “amen.”

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Abundance is a splashy little thing,

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With a graceful elegance.

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It’s a timeless beauty, capable of endless transformations.

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Abundance can be of our own making, of course–bread dough, for instance, set to rise in a warm kitchen.

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Perfect in its imperfections, it fills us with a delicious sense of well-being.

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Abundance is the secret gardens we tend…

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Within each seed of awareness, an abundant harvest.

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I snapped these photos over the course of this past year. They speak to grand adventures and simple delights, quiet beauty and occasions that shout, Behold! It’s a curated collection, brief glimpses of the whole story, but when I remember these wide-eyed, breathless moments, I’m filled anew with gratitude for the abundance they represent.

How apropos, that Thanksgiving week prompted the challenge word abundance. Want to see more? Visit Veronica Roth’s page and follow the links. My responses to previous challenge words are available here. 

Posted in: art challenge, beach, Harlem Gospel Choir, joy, joyful noise, monarch butterfly, Photography, Sara Tagged: abundance, beach, bread dough rising, bubble wand, egret, exotic feline breeding compound, homebaked bread, hummingbird egg, leopard, lev, monarch butterfly, mule deer, pope john paul ii rose, rain slicker, sand castles, sara, thanksgiving

Each in our own way(s), giving thanks

November 26, 2015 by Melodye Shore

We stood at the railing together in reverent silence, watched the sun hover above the chapparel-covered hills before sinking into the ocean. A shoulder’s distance away, a stooped old man was mumbling to himself. He wore a plaid shirt and tan slacks, hitched at the waist with a belt several sizes too large, and his gnarled fingers were folded into a knot of resignation. Or prayer, maybe. It was impossible to read his face because his rheumy eyes were fixed on the horizon, somewhere far beyond the pewter clouds and the sun’s fading brilliance.

In the slope of the old man’s shoulders, I sensed a heavy presence. It hung in the air between us: an unspeakable grief.

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I wanted to lift his spirits somehow, wanted to ask, maybe, if he knew the name of the sweet little bird who sang from the brush as the shadows grew long and the gentle breeze turned chilly. I wanted to bridge the silence, searched without success for the just-right words to cheer him.

The streetlights flickered on, offering light but no insights. Tears welled up in my eyes when we left. In the quiet car ride home, above the sounds of the motor and whirring tires, I grew increasingly uneasy. I placed my hand on my husband’s arm, said “Turn around,” and he responded instantly. In the shared silence, we’d heard (and answered together) the call for grace.

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We found it in the twilight, but not in the form that we’d imagined. A smallish dog was bounding between a pair of gawkish boys and the lonely old man–a furry bundle of unbridled joy, with flappy ears and a trailing leash. Grace, in the shape of an ungainly mutt, who erased all traces of misery with his swishing tail and exuberant barks.

Grace. It’s the unseen hand that stitches several characters together into a greater story and reminds us of the ties that bind. It’s expressed differently for everyone, perhaps, but it’s very essence of Thanksgiving…a shared table around which we pass generous portions of love and laughter, cherished memories and favorite foods.

Posted in: Golden Rule, grace, joy, joyful noise, liminal spaces, Thanksgiving Tagged: beach overlook, grace, thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. 2014

November 27, 2014 by Melodye Shore

Blessed are they…Blessed are ye…Blessed are we. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: beatitudes, sweet honey in the rock, thanksgiving

Grace note, on Thanksgiving Eve

November 26, 2014 by Melodye Shore

That moment when a darling little girl in a holiday dress comes rushing toward you, eyes sparkling & arms wide, yelling "Grandma!" And though you've never met, you just smile inside and fall into her trusting embrace.*

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These encounters seem to come out of nowhere, don't they? Oftentimes, when we need them most. I'd just gotten a cortisone shot in my foot (post-surgical healing at a standstill) and was trying to walk off the pain and disappointment. And then — as if by magic! — there she was.

*Grandma? I admit to a brief, "Hey, wait a minute…" reaction afterward. But that moment? Totally worth it!

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: serendipity, thanksgiving

Thankful Thursday: Gathering up and letting go

November 24, 2011 by Melodye Shore
Breathe in Thanksgiving, breathe out thanks giving….
Breathe in thanks, breathe out giving.

via Do As One (Facebook community)

I've always been a collector: quotations, books, photographs and ephemera…you name it. It wasn't easy when I was I was little–we were always in a state of packing or unpacking, traveling from here to there, and even my most valued treasures got lost (or tossed!) along the way. But once I settled into a home of my own, the collections grew…

I'm not a hoarder, mind you; still, I've surrounded myself with stuff. But I've come to realize that those things can (and oftentimes do) become more precious than whatever it is they represent.  Tangible objects though they may be, they sneak into your spiritual nooks and crannies, too–keeping you stuck in the past or present, and squeezing you into ever-smaller spaces. So during this past year, I've been reducing the clutter. Little by little, I'm whittling my collections down to their essence, and in doing so, I'm (re)discovering the reasons they caught my eye in the first place. I'm liking the effects: I breathe easier, and I have more passageways in my home (my life), in which to expand and grow.

So on this Thankful Thursday (serendipitously, Thanksgiving) I'm grateful for all I have and all that will be…for the abundance in my life, and for the blessings that come of letting go.

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: thankful thursday, thanksgiving

Wordless Wednesday: All things bright and beautiful…

November 23, 2011 by Melodye Shore

Red Cross Magazine via eBay seller;
(All Things Bright and Beautiful is a 17th century English melody)
Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: all things bright and beautiful, red cross magazine, thanksgiving, wordless wednesday

Thanksgiving

November 23, 2010 by Melodye Shore

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

 

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.

 

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind’s delight,
For the mystic harmony
Linking sense to sound and sight.

 

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.


"For the Beauty of the Earth,"
by Folliott Pierpoint.

♥ Happy Thanksgiving, my cherished friends! ♥

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: for the beauty of the earth, gratitude, thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours

November 26, 2009 by Melodye Shore

Every time we remember to say thank you, we experience nothing less than heaven on earth.

–Sarah Ban Breathnach

Image Credit: "Abundance," a stained glass window at Sonnenberg Mansion

Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: gratitude, thanksgiving

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