Thankful for wonder.
by Todd Foley
Today marks my first Thanksgiving in Canada as a permanent resident. I love food; I love family; I love celebration. I especially love that I get to celebrate this holiday twice – once with my Canadian family, once with my American family.
As I celebrated today, I was filled with wonder and was overwhelmed with thankfulness for this wonder. Here are the four instances that left me in wonder.
Celebration of the meal. My wife and I hosted 18 people in our tiny basement apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. Our previous record was 12 for the life group we lead weekly. I honestly thought my wife was crazy when she suggested we host this dinner. But once everyone was gathered and the food was put out, all stress went away. There only was celebration and the giving of thanks.
Beauty under the sea. In hopes of recovering after our party last night, my wife and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium today [my first visit to the tourist attraction]. My eyes stayed wide open as we went from tank to tank. It’s a wonderful thing to be reminded what an incredibly beautiful and dynamic world we live in – and we only see half of that world each day. The colors, the sizes, the varieties. It was like watching a million tiny paint pallets come to life and swim around.
Natural oasis in the heart of a city. The aquarium is located in the heart of Stanley Park. If you’ve ever been to Vancouver, you know what a gem this place is. A 1,000 acre park at the tip of the downtown core, you’d never know you’re in the third-largest city in Canada. The park is bordered by a 14 mile one-way “seawall,” so we drove around the entire park on our way out. I was struck by the perfect harmony of modern day cutting-edge architecture and ancient growth forests. Only in Vancouver.
Creativity hitting your taste buds. We love gelato. So it was only fitting that, on our way home, we stop at La Casa Gelato, home to over 200 flavors of gelato. We’re talking everything – from raspberry cheesecake and Spanish coffee to roasted garlic and wasabi peas. It’s a great deal of fun to sample the varieties. This is food art.
What fills you with wonder?
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