Lincolnwood, Illinois

I left the sixteenth section of the poem, in addition to a few words about things I'm thankful for, on our Thanks tree at my childhood home in Lincolnwood, Illinois on Thanksgiving Day.

The first incarnation of the Thanks Tree came about a few weeks ago when we visited our delightful friends Mike and Amy in West Virginia for an early Thanksgiving potluck. Amy had the idea for everyone to write something they were thankful for on a piece of paper, so I went foraging in their yard for a sturdy branch on which we clothespinned these little notes of thanks. After dinner, Mike and Amy guessed who wrote what and passed the slips to the person they thought had written them. If they guessed wrong, the person with the incorrect slip had to guess who wrote it, and so on and so forth until each slip was with its rightful owner.

Being a fan of festivity, branches, and guessing games, I naturally had to repeat the Thanks Tree at my childhood home in Chicago, where we spent Thanksgiving Day with family. I've been a little obsessed with carving stamps lately (more posts to come on that front), so I made some "Thanks" cards which we used as part of the place settings and which doubled as the recipients of our written thanks.

O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not-if you leave me you are lost?