Poem for Thanksgiving

When Giving Is All We Have
By Alberto Ríos

            One river gives
            Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

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I have both my sons at home, and Maddy is baking in the kitchen and Christine is playing with our cats. I did laundry in the morning, dropped Maddy off at work, then we went to College Park, picked up DP Dough, and ate it at Adam's apartment before driving him home. We spent the afternoon watching The Force Awakens because Daniel had never seen it, picked up Maddy, and had pot pie for dinner.

Christine came over while Adam and Maddy, who had gone shopping together earlier, were baking apple pie for Maddy to take to work tomorrow where the staff is celebrating Thanksgiving together between movies though being a vegetarian she probably won't be able to each much. She watched Harry Potter movies in the kitchen while the rest of us watched Kubo and the Two Strings, which we all liked, especially the visuals.