A Thanksgiving Walk

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! The return of my health and the return of my daughter, who has lived in a multitude of wonderful countries for the past five years. I’m grateful beyond words for both.

We celebrated Thanksgiving a day early in order to enjoy what we really love about Thanksgiving: the leftovers! We had family leaving on crack of dawn flights on Friday, which meant no leftovers for them unless we bumped the holiday by a day. This excellent planning left us with lots of leftovers and the actual Thanksgiving Day to go for a very long, very strenuous, very beautiful hike through the winter woods at Willow River State Park.

Willow River State Park is a short drive from my Mom’s home in Hudson, WI. The park is absolutely gorgeous, beautifully maintained and very well loved. Our family has a tradition of hiking here, especially on holidays, to burn those extra calories and drink in the beauty and solitude that refills our souls.

We hiked for almost three hours along the river, to the falls, up the stairs to the overlook, back down another trail to the falls, and back up the river. Then we came home and ate a lot of leftovers. It was a glorious Thanksgiving.

I give thanks for my family, for our wonderful meal, for our soul-renewing hike, for the trumpeter swans, bald eagle, songbirds and deer who kept us company. I give thanks for the open spaces where we can go connect to the truth and beauty of nature.

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love and laughter, that you made memories to treasure for years to come, and that you walked somewhere together in the silent grace of nature and found peace.

Happy Thanksgiving.