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Thanksgiving in Dallas once upon a time<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Some years ago, on holiday from New York, my son, Christopher, and I were visiting my mother and other Texas relations. Today is Thanksgiving in Ojai, and unusually, I find myself alone on the holiday and given over to earlier, happier memories of holidays past \u2013 when we were young and innocent – or more innocent then: pre-Pandemic and, unlike today, a time when living in America, our democracy was a certainty.<\/p>\n My friend, Jerry with whom I had for the past few years celebrated Thanksgiving had passed away, and a dear couple who live nearby and considered \u2018family\u2019 are off to Hawaii this week for a Thanksgiving Luau.<\/p>\n After an uninvited update to my Word Press website which caused the wayofstory<\/a> site of many years to be blocked by one and all for the past six weeks, I realized that even if I am unable to post my monthly blog, I could write it now and post it at a later date when technology<\/em> hopefully will finally come to my aid. One becomes a helpless hostage to the technological age.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the best of times; it was the worst of times\u201d wrote Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. <\/em>It is also true of our times. While there is much to be grateful for, there are inevitably certain present challenges demanding focus.<\/p>\n Over 1100 miles away, my son and his Seattle family called this morning to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving, and one of my grandsons \u2013 now a teen \u2013 ended the call with \u201cI love you, Nana.\u201d \u00a0Somehow one feels the distance more on holidays.<\/p>\n A dear friend whom I have known since undergraduate days and her husband of several decades also called this morning from New York. She is being challenged by a serious illness and is more than gallant. If anyone can come through this dark time, it is she. The bonds of old friends -both living and those recently passed away\u00a0 – embrace me on this solitary Thanksgiving Day, reminding me that friends are the family we choose.<\/p>\n Alan Jay Friedman who composed most of the music for my play and later musical, Calamity Jane,<\/em> passed away Saturday and I will be speaking at his Memorial this afternoon. I decided instead of saying many words, I will introduce and play a recording of a song from our musical: An Expected Turn. “Sometimes life will make an unexpected turn…”\u00a0<\/em>Apt somehow.<\/p>\n Friends are truly a lasting treasure. Even those seven individuals who have passed away in the last year or two remain as distinct presences in my life. Even Sasha (age 14) and his sister, Missy Prissy, my loving 18-year-old cat who, after outliving her brother, quietly left this world two years ago. \u00a0I swear I can still hear her voice late in the dark of night, in this now empty house. And yes, cats are as much family as any other being.<\/p>\n Holidays are a perfect time to reflect and remember -not only those still here \u2013 but those who have crossed over. As long as there is memory, everyone remains.<\/p>\n \u00a0For schedule, online courses, psychic readings, or writing consultations visit:<\/p>\n Thanksgiving in Dallas once upon a time Some years ago, on holiday from New York, my son, Christopher, and I were visiting my mother and other Texas relations. Today is Thanksgiving in Ojai, and unusually, I find myself alone on the holiday and given over to earlier, happier memories of holidays past \u2013 when we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catherine-ann-jones","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3582,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3578\/revisions\/3582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wayofstory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/visionary-1.jpg\")
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