Living a Thankful Life

Thanksgiving.

Nice name for a holiday. But a far, far better name for a lifestyle.

There are so many people, feelings, ideas, events, places, and other things for which to be thankful that to name even a few means leaving out more than can be included.

Many folks in my home area of Louisiana will be happy to see 2005 come to an end, and are struggling in one way or another right now with the effects of the two category five hurricanes.

Those twisted sisters, Katrina and Rita, cut paths of destruction, devastation, and turmoil and even now continue to weigh heavily on those affected.

So I understand this year's ambivalence many of my fellow Cajuns and New Orleanians and Louisianians feel toward celebrating "Thanksgiving."

Normally, we are an exuberant and resilient people who are known world-wide for our "joie de vie" (love of life) and "savoie faire" (skill at living life) - as evidenced in our famous celebrations - from deep winter's Mardi Gras to Spring's Jazz Fest to summer's lazy days at a beach to fall's full festival season in the rural parishes (counties).

I am giving thanks today mostly for my Dieu-donne {pronounced d'YOOH daw NAY - "God-given"} disposition.

Ever since I can remember, I have felt optimisitc about things, and that did not change with the coming of the hurricanes this year - or with the death of my mother only three weeks prior (on Aug 6th).

New Orleans now has an opportunity it might never have had to remake itself, literally from the ground up.

And each of us who live here have a similar chance to remake ourselves too, from the soul out. We need to become experts at living fully again.

"How do you become an expert," I once asked my Uncle Mose.

"To become an expert," he said wryly, "you have to make 5,000 mistakes.

"Get busy."
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