Thanks
I remember graduating from the sixth grade at Hyde Park Elementary School in Cincinnati Ohio. The graduating class learned the iconic Bob Hope song “Thanks for the Memory.” We substituted different lyrics to celebrate the school faculty and how they had served us. I remember crying a lot. It was the first time that I was aware of bittersweet tears. I was happy to be going to junior high school and was sad at leaving new found friends.
This was the school that I had my first metaphysical experience. A year prior, I was living in Hollywood California attending the only school I ever knew. I was a straight-A student and had earned favors from the school that had given me a healthy sense of self-worth. Then my mother announced we were moving back to Ohio. I was born there and we came to Hollywood when I was 1. I felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. No, I shouted, how can you do this to me?
In the ensuing weeks, I had a dream. I dreamt that I was in a new school with the students and the homeroom teacher. Fast forward to September 1951, the first day of school in Cincinnati. My grandpa drove us to the school and I was full of fear. We turned the corner and suddenly I saw the school building of my dreams. I began to relax a little. Gramps, let us out and as we walked to the front door, I was familiar with the entire place. We entered and went to homeroom. When we went into the room, my cousin was about to tell me the teacher’s name. I interrupted him and said her name before he did. His eyes got huge! How did you…….? I then told him the names of several of our classmates.
Perhaps some of the aforementioned tears were full of the connection that my heart knew it had experienced. All I know is, that I was thankful for that moment in time and I really felt it at a deep level.
On this day, when those of us in the United States celebrate being thankful, may you remember a time in your life when your soul and your angels and your heart teamed up to give you peace! From my thankful heart to yours, Thomas