Trini V (T5), Jace                            Taylor, baby William, Calvin

 

Here we are at Thanksgiving 2020. Some of us were unsure we would make it here and have even questioned civilization’s fracture…

In a year as unprecedented as this, and if you still have a heartbeat, that seems a normal thought to have had.

Don’t fear on the fragile civilization front. There are folks who study this stuff (Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies) and indeed—it is true—societies and civilizations do “disappear,” rather…they adapt.

The Fall of Rome? Yes? But Rome is STILL THERE!

It’s just…different.

And that is our message today. It is after all our message of hope.

Yes, the political, racial, economic, spiritual, etc., etc., landscapes are changing. And many behaviors, e.g, the way we shop and communicate (Zoom much?) has changed.

It is this time of year, and this time it’s mandatory that we breathe deep and inventory any and all goodness we still have.

Your grateful list—we all have one—is the starting point of simplicity and hope.

Someone loves you. Start there.

Although you may not or cannot be with all or ANY of those that love you this year it does not mean you are alone. We all have a new understanding of “being alone” and loneliness this year. It sucks. We need human interaction. We need hugs. We need horsing around, pushes and tugs. We need touch.

Touch? That’s not the best idea this year except in your personal bubbles. And our society is hurting for it.

The “greater good” and “we are all in this together” makes us angry and naturally some even recoil from that and naturally push back, not settling for anyone telling them what they can or cannot do. Feeling guilty or guiltless about distancing is little consolation for that sinking feeling of loneliness and loss for all of us no matter what.

Which gets us to part two: health.

When we were kids our grandparents said the same to me as they did you (and as we age this truth is self-evident)… health is all you have. In fact, another way they would say it was, “getting old is no fun” or the rougher variation of that. At no time ever—possibly since the last pandemic and the famine or pandemic before that—has a complex civilization universally realized this as a whole.

Wanting, NEEDING, health binds us together. Each of us only want the simplicity of health in the end.

So, our plea: please want the simplicity of health for your brother and sisters too.

Happy Thanksgiving dear friends, our extended family. It’s a wish for all the things, ANYTHING, you can put your finger on to be grateful for.

We point to the five grandchildren above that top our grateful list.

While we have you—and indulge us to go there—let us be the first to make this wish: here is to a healthy and love-filled 2021.

Mark this on your calendar. Gracianna Winery will be here in 2021. Positively delivering brilliant wine, bumps in the road be damned. Pursuing the simplicity of love. Seeking health and longing to touch when we can.

Trini & Lisa and the entire Gracianna team and family