Salt and a Potato

I am thankful today for salt and a potato.

Specifically, the salt and potato my sister and I traded a half-block from each of our houses, meeting halfway this morning before one of us (I’m not saying which one) had even had a shower, a while after my husband had woken up early to chop things and a while after her children had woken up early because they are one and three years old.

She needed a potato, we needed salt.

We are celebrating small today, Phil and I, and this morning has been spent in a mix of simmering beef stock, brewing coffee, meowing cats and music on the iPod. Tomorrow is the bigger mixed-family celebrations – actually a belated birthday party for my nephew (the one who just turned three).

Meg’s query about potatoes came via text message on my smart phone, but that didn’t change the fact that each of us pulled on shoes, opened our back doors and stepped out into a somewhat chilly, somewhat cloudy late fall day to walk our ingredients over.

So I am thankful for salt and a potato.

And I am thankful for my husband, who likes to get up early and chop things.

I am thankful for my sister and that she lives less than a block away with her husband (who also likes to get up early and chop things) and thankful for my niece and nephew, for being able to see them so often and so easily, for afternoons they stop by while they’re out walking and I join them; thankful for my next-door neighbor who gives my nephew Tootsie rolls and rolls my trash and recycling cans back up my driveway after they’re emptied in the mornings.

I’m thankful for our little house in a neighborhood that’s still a neighborhood, in a quiet, mid-20th-century part of Roanoke with trees and backyards.

I’m thankful for the view of the mountains from the end of the block.

I’m thankful for the little church at the top of the hill that we all can walk to on Sundays, for the people and the fellowship and the music there.

I’m thankful for the fall leaves in the backyard, for cranberry sauce, stuffing, mince pie and turkey. I’m thankful that my parents are only a two-hour drive up the valley, and that my sister is only a two-minute walk around the block.

I am thankful for salt and a potato.

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