The Joy of Thanksgiving
I know that Thanksgiving was a few days ago and, true to form, I am late on this post. I have been a bit quiet lately, but that will be remedied soon enough. If you were to ask 10 random people what their favorite holiday was most likely half of them would say Thanksgiving. It's true. One of the most overlooked of all holidays is the one most people hold near and dear. It is my absolute favorite holiday. Now, don't get me wrong I love Easter and Christmas for altogether other reasons, but Thanksgiving is that one day a year when family gets together and there is no pretense, just the joy of being together. This was my first Thanksgiving without the ex-Mr. I want to tell you that I spent it in a funk and couldn't move and was debilitated by the grief, but the truth of it is, I wasn't. No, in fact, I have to tell you it was the best Thanksgiving we have ever had. The reason? We all got to be who we are. You know how when someone doesn't approve of your family or members of your family or the way your family does things and that can make you not enjoy all of the reasons for the day? Oh, of course not. What was I thinking? You have never experienced that before. Pfft, neither have I! LOL!
Anyway this year it was my parents, my uncle and aunt, and my brother and nephew, my sister, and my girls and me. Yes, just the 11 of us. Well, until my dear friend popped over for dessert before heading out to brave the Thanksgiving Day Walmart crowds! This year we were the cooky, functionally dysfunctional, full of laughter and love, family that we are. We were us. As we are. And I think I fell in love with each one of my family members a little bit more. Yes, even my little sister! HA!
This year, I took up the 30 Days of Thankfulness thing on Facebook. I have tried it in the past but always petered out before I made it through the whole month. This year, I found that I could have continued well into December. But, I think my friends may have gotten just a bit sick of it after another couple days ;) I was planning to copy and paste all of my days of thankfulness, but Facebook seems to have misplaced a couple of days or else I don't understand the randomness of the historical newsfeed. Either way, I won't be including them here. It's easy to be thankful for the big things, you know - family, friends, health, job, church, relationship with Jesus, but it is the small things that really make the days take on a whole new meaning. When you have to really look at each moment of the day and find the blessings in it, well you find you have more than you thought.
November was a month of many things. It was a month of growth. It was the first full month after my year of change. But, I was able to see more into it than the grief and loss that the whole past year held. True,I may not have everything that I want and my life may not be what I thought it would be, and I may not yet be the woman God created me to be, but I know that I have much and am thankful for it. I know that God never promises us tomorrow, but He does promise to be there and I'm thankful for that. Above all, though I am still a work in progress, I know that I am definitely not who I once was. For this I find great joy and an exponential amount of reason to be thankful.
One last thought and only because it had such a profound impact on me is a little something that my dear friend shared with me, "what if we were to wake up tomorrow with only those things we were thankful for today?" Kind of makes you want to stop and think. Perspective has such a way of putting everything into view.
Anyway this year it was my parents, my uncle and aunt, and my brother and nephew, my sister, and my girls and me. Yes, just the 11 of us. Well, until my dear friend popped over for dessert before heading out to brave the Thanksgiving Day Walmart crowds! This year we were the cooky, functionally dysfunctional, full of laughter and love, family that we are. We were us. As we are. And I think I fell in love with each one of my family members a little bit more. Yes, even my little sister! HA!
This year, I took up the 30 Days of Thankfulness thing on Facebook. I have tried it in the past but always petered out before I made it through the whole month. This year, I found that I could have continued well into December. But, I think my friends may have gotten just a bit sick of it after another couple days ;) I was planning to copy and paste all of my days of thankfulness, but Facebook seems to have misplaced a couple of days or else I don't understand the randomness of the historical newsfeed. Either way, I won't be including them here. It's easy to be thankful for the big things, you know - family, friends, health, job, church, relationship with Jesus, but it is the small things that really make the days take on a whole new meaning. When you have to really look at each moment of the day and find the blessings in it, well you find you have more than you thought.
November was a month of many things. It was a month of growth. It was the first full month after my year of change. But, I was able to see more into it than the grief and loss that the whole past year held. True,I may not have everything that I want and my life may not be what I thought it would be, and I may not yet be the woman God created me to be, but I know that I have much and am thankful for it. I know that God never promises us tomorrow, but He does promise to be there and I'm thankful for that. Above all, though I am still a work in progress, I know that I am definitely not who I once was. For this I find great joy and an exponential amount of reason to be thankful.
One last thought and only because it had such a profound impact on me is a little something that my dear friend shared with me, "what if we were to wake up tomorrow with only those things we were thankful for today?" Kind of makes you want to stop and think. Perspective has such a way of putting everything into view.
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