Kia ora! Our excellent adventure continues with thoughts of
Thanksgiving and giving thanks. It is Friday here, but all day, my thoughts
have been centered on events taking place thousands of miles away on your
Thursday. I will admit to having focused on the clock an inordinate amount of
time today, as I speculated on what may be happening at any given moment in Utah , Arizona or Texas .
This is our fourth Thanksgiving away from home and I will
admit that I am suffering from some serious homesickness. As I have described
this season to others, I am transported to a place where the air is crisp and
it’s still possible to find some autumn leaves to crunch under foot. I have
described steamed up kitchen windows and the blissful aromas emanating from
that hive of activity. I am fondly missing associations with friends and family
and the laughter and the general feeling of mellowness that settles over the
evening. To me, it is magical and I miss it.
Finding the need for a major paradigm shift, I began to
realize that while there will hopefully, be many more Thanksgivings at home,
the chance that we will spend another one in our adopted country are slim. My
shift involved a refocus. This afternoon, I have been pouring over photos that
impart their own memories for which I am truly thankful. I am beyond grateful
for the opportunities and experiences that have become the collage of our time
here. We are thankful for the associations we have enjoyed with our new friends
and we know that a year from now when we are enjoying a brisk walk while
crunching leaves, we will be thinking of friends here who are traveling to a
favorite beach for the Festive Season. While the aroma of a succulent turkey
wafts through my kitchen, I will be carried back to celebrations where a pig or
lamb roasted on an outside spit. I will smile at the memory of how instead of
fighting over a drumstick, our Kiwi friends jockeyed to see who would receive
the largest portion of crackle. Their way is magical as well and we will savor
the memories we are collecting. We would like to share a little of the Kiwi
magic with you and hope that you can catch the spirit of what we will surely be
missing next year at this time.
We are thankful for and will miss watercolor mornings.
We are thankful that these elders showed us where to find the most delicious butter chicken in New Zealand. It was worth the hour drive to get to Curry King! We will miss it!
We are thankful for technicolor sunrises viewed from our bedroom window.
We were always grateful for this view as we returned home.
We are thankful to have experienced Fejoas. They taste like fruit salad. Yum!
We are thankful to have seen so many exotic flowers. We will miss them.
We are thankful for a time, we lived in a land of lighthouses.
We are thankful to have seen a beautiful rainbow as it dropped into the sea.
We were thankful when friends dropped by our home.
Ward was thankful that he had a fresh breakfast available just outside his door.
We were thankful when friends hung around.
We were thankful when someone roasted a pig. The crackle is the crispy skin and Ward thinks that it's delicious. People are always fighting to get the last bit.
We are thankful to have visited so many breathtaking places. We have lovely memories.
We are thankful to have seen the Rhododendron bush bloom in our backyard. Next November, I will think of it and miss its amazing aroma.
We are thankful to have lived near middle earth.
I was thankful to share one of my favorite places in Gisborne with Ward's family. This is Sponge Bay and it is stunning.
I am thankful to have experienced Rere Falls. Ward's family enjoyed it as well.
I am thankful to have learned about Maraes.
We are so thankful to have shared our experiences here in New Zealand with amazing young people.
As always we are happy and trying to work hard. We treasure
the relationships that have become the fabric of our lives and are so thankful
to have your faces come into focus as we concentrate on one experience and
memory after another. Thank you for traveling our road with us and please know
that we are here giving thanks for you and what you bring into our lives.
Love, Ward and Susan
Elder and Sister Belliston, serving in Gisborne , New Zealand
We ate thankful for you as well. Your experiences will end all too quickly and in a year when you are enjoying your thanksgiving with family, you and we will look back and still be grateful for our past experiences and wonderful people we had the opportunity to serve and love. Thanks for keeping us focused. We send our love.
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