Put Your Own Spin On Thanksgiving!

While I remember coloring pictures of turkeys, pilgrims with buckled shoes and a handful of their Native American guests as a child - cornucopias and all the other hoopla that surrounded Thanksgiving was not enough to allow full ownership of this annual holiday in my grade school student's heart...

So it was with considerable surprise that I finally found some genuine fall harvest spirit this year in connection with working up an origami mock-up of a Asian-American inspired harvest craft project to introduce to families at Wing Luke Asian Museum.

Taking inspiration from a arty little origami box and folded paper ball, I put together a 3-dimensional spin on the traditional cornucopia theme which oddly enough fully resonates with the disconnect I've felt about Thanksgiving decor since my early youth.

Perhaps it pleases that part of my ancestry which includes hardworking farmers from Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu whose celebrated staff of life was rice rather than corn or wheat back in my grandma and grandpa's day. So the cornucopia has been transformed into a elegant folded paper box, and bread into folded paper gohan balls.

If you or younger family members might be interested in participating in this exercise, consider yourself cordially invited to a free make n' take arts and crafts presentation during a Family Day at the WING with Mizu Sugimura, from 1-3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon at the museum located at 719 S. King Street in the heart of Seattle's Chinatown/International District.

While strict traditionalists may balk at this departure from conventional archetypes, as an artist I'm particularly interested in nurturing the idea that creative improvisation can always be welcomed if it plays any part in bringing more of these long-observed anchors of American life closer to the hearts and minds of us all.

And while we may prefer as individuals or communities to take different roads and personalize the holiday with our own take on the celebrations it is possible as a nation to arrive at the same destination if our fundamental goals are truly shared.

For more details and directions to the museum click here.

Below: (l-r) Mary Shifton proudly displays the paper fan she made at a previous make n'take session during a "Family Day at the WING" in August 2008 with Federal Way paper artist Mizu Sugimura .

The Glories of Autumn

I love this time of year. The pretty flowers of Spring and Summer are delightful and I enjoy the warmth of the sun. The opportunity to turn inward in Winter is a necessity for me, but my very favorite season is the joy of Autumn with its colors and harvest.

This picture was taken at Gig Harbor High School. Each Fall this courtyard is my favorite spot at work.

My favorite holiday is Halloween with its chance to play dress up and its opportunity to remember those who have gone on ahead. Last Saturday my husband, son, and I spent the day decorating for Halloween.

Here is my breakfront in my kitchen with my pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns.
Here's the witches in the dinning room with my son's considerable cobwebs!

On Sunday we rewarded ourselves with our annual Autumn drive. Last year it was Greenwater. This year we went on a crisp sunny drive over to Key Peninsula all the way to Penrose State Park and Far A Way. We’ve decided that Penrose will be a destination next summer with the children.

We took our dog Loki with us who enjoyed a long walk down a forest trail, away from a loud foursome who were sharing a picnic lunch and the echo the bowl of Penrose provides. They were not young people, but rather four retirees who haven't lost their sense of play, but didn't realize their antics were spoiling the silence of place.

My second favorite holiday is Thanksgiving when I can celebrate my family with a holiday that Hallmark has not been able to commercialize since Thanksgiving is about the emotion of thankfulness for all that we’ve been blessed with.

Here is our dear friend Jon cooking our turkey in Ilwaco last year. That bird was the best I’ve ever put into my mouth and he and his wife Jo are now our designated turkey cookers. They were already designated family.

Here we are last year sharing our Thanksgiving meal in Ilwaco.

This year we will have much to be thankful for. My mother has survived two bouts of infections and my husband has so far survived a work closure. And best of all we will have a new member of the family whose arrival will occur any day now!

Giving thanks when it isn't Thanksgiving

Daily there is much for which to be thankful and I give thanks even amidst the chaotic challenges day-to-day.

This week marks a one-year anniversary, a milestone I give special thanks for because it was a year ago at this time that my husband Charles was hospitalized at St. Joseph Hospital with yet another brush with death. He has been through so much over the past 15 years with end-stage renal failure, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, dialysis, a kidney transplant, a failing transplanted kidney, and then last year runaway blood pressure (224/117) that ushered in a stroke.

I give thanks that he has overcome so much in the past year and is still alive and making the most and the best of every day.

Sadly, his mother, who is also on dialysis (for the past ten years), was taken to the ER last night and has been hospitalized with severe chest pain and shortness of breath. She's receiving oxygen and injections of morphine. Charles has been at her side all day.

It is a bittersweet conundrum that we 'celebrate' him having enjoyed another year of life after his close call in 2007 and yet he ends up -- in the hospital -- on the anniversary as he tends to his mother's urgent needs.

Through it all he has never waivered from being a loving, gentle spirit.

I have been blessed in countless way to have Charles in my life for the past 16 years.

I give thanks today. For me, it is Thanksgiving.