A Thanksgiving ” Manifesto”

Thanksgiving ” Thank You” bouquet

Dear Reader:

Like most holidays… Thanksgiving stares back at us all month through the ” coming up” date marked on our November calendar. And then ” suddenly” it appears and then disappears as quickly as a sunbeam.

It is up to us… to pause amid the food and clatter to look around and ” feel” Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I will share some of those moments with you that I discovered and put to memory.

But today-Thanksgiving Day-I want to share a ” Manifesto” with you… not just any manifesto but one I felt such an affinity to after the first time I read it. As a lifelong history teacher most manifestos seem more political than an expression of personal values but the definition of a manifesto simply means … a written statement of an individual or group’s beliefs and aims.

Magnolia Magazine’s (Joanna Gaines) Magnolia Manifesto is so profoundly written that I find myself checking off each belief every time I read it in acknowledgment of our shared values ( and wish our ‘house and senate’ had similar goals and aims for our country. )

WE BELIEVE

We believe in home, that it should restore us from today and ready us for tomorrow.We believe in friendship, because friends who feel like family are the best kind of friends, and that nothing matters more than family.

We believe in seeking the balance between hustle and rest and learning to find contentment in both. We believe everyone deserves a seat at the table and everyone has a story worth telling.

We believe in human kindness , knowing we are made better when we all work together. We believe in courage, in cartwheeling past our comfort zones and trying something a little bit scary every day.

We believe that failure needn’t be a negative thing; rather, we learn from our mistakes and fail smarter next time. We believe in doing good work that matters and, in choosing that, nudging others toward doing the same.

We believe that newer isn’t always better and that it’s time for the pendulum of trend to swing back to the basics. We believe in unearthing beauty, however hidden or subtle it might be.

We believe that each day is a gift and that every day miracles are scattered about if only we have eyes to see. And of all heroic pursuits large or small. We believe there may be none greater than a life well loved.

So until tomorrow…

Eloise colored her turkey platter and then explained to her pre-school teacher how to cook a turkey. Hope everyone got the directions straight! 😂👍

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh

Look at my beautiful neighborhood hawk who sat right on the fence and posed for me Tuesday. Happy Thanksgiving to all God’s creatures!

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”
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2 Responses to A Thanksgiving ” Manifesto”

  1. Johnny Johnson says:

    I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving weekend! So, much seems to happen during this long weekend for us in South Carolina. We gather with Family and have a feast and give thanks for our blessings given from God, Life, Family, Health and quantity of all things big and small. To know these blessings, one has but to stop and look around at the small things, flowers still blooming and some just beginning to bloom! Our birds, and we have birds that never seem to leave from our very own Carolina Wrenns to resident Cardinals, to some of the small Winter birds as I call them, our Sparrows, and the more ominous like our Hawks, Crows, and the Owls that let themselves know in the dead of night. My biggest blessing outside of our Lord and Savior, is I was born and raised right here in the Low Country and no matter where I go, no matter how beautiful the places I have seen were, the beauty my Low Country is always the best and I am truly blessed to be a Sand Lapper, a Greenwave, and a Palmetto Moon gazer! And all the friends I know and have known from lifelong to recent are a big part of the blessing of being here, home, now and forever part of my beloved South Carolina! Have a truly blessed Thanksgiving Mrs. Dingle, one of my more recent Family Members!

  2. Rachel Edwards says:

    Happy Thanksgiving to you sweet friend…

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