NOVEMBER IS HERE.
NOVEMBER IS MORE THAN HERE...
We rush frantic in crowded stores to buy turkeys, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and sage... pumpkins, apples, sugar, and flour for handmade pie crusts...tablecloths, pretty napkins, candles, and autumnal decorations to welcome our guests. Cookbooks are opened to faithful recipes, tried and true. We give our energy, our skill, our time, our love to prepare a special place for our family and friends to gather in close reflection, in tender community.
THANKSGIVING IS HERE.
YES, THANKSGIVING IS HERE.
BUT WHAT IF...
What if Thanksgiving doesn't feel cozy?
What if Thanksgiving feels like stress?
What if Thanksgiving isn't the warm gathering of friends and family around the table?
What if Thanksgiving is completely alone?
ALONE.
Friend, your house may be alive with excitement and swarming with people on Thanksgiving Day, yet in vulnerable truth, you might still feel quite alone.
*****
WHAT IF...
What if you are grieving this Thanksgiving?
What if someone who is supposed to be around your table isn't? What if death, sickness, divorce, tragedy has come, and you have to face this holiday, next winter, next spring, your next birthday, next year... with a gaping hole that you know can never be filled?
What if you are swallowed up in darkness, depression, shame?
WHAT IF?
How then do you say...
"THANKS" ???
No journey is without trial. No path is without dissension. Some seem to have more ease than others, I know, but...
There is always, always something... some one, some place, some way...
TO BE THANKFUL.
Even through the tears...even through the ache...even through the sorrow...even through the loneliness... even through the loss...
Through ruin, rubble, desert, fire, scars, wounds...
When your soul feels stabbed, and your ache bleeds into every area of your life...
Hope seems impossible.
***********
STOP.
BREATHE.
PAUSE.
REFLECT.
There's always something for which to be thankful.
ALWAYS.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
If the only thing for which you can say "thank you" is this breath, it is enough.
IT IS ENOUGH.
You are here.
You are loved.
You matter.
You are seen.
You are alive.
BREATHE.
Your "thanks" may be through clinched teeth and tears, but it's honest and raw. Let the tears fall, and be thankful for the salty trickle that streams down your cheeks and touches your lips... that you feel, that you taste...
IT'S REAL.
IT'S OKAY.
I promise you this, you are not alone. Even if you feel like it, the truth is this...
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
YOU.
ARE.
NOT.
ALONE!
It's easy to say "thanks" when there is abundance around you. I know the hearts of those who are extravagantly blessed aren't any less thankful. However, when you bend your heart to say, "Thank you, God" ...when that very heart of yours is shattered and breaking...
IT IS HOLY-BEAUTIFUL.
LISTEN, MY FRIEND.
HOLY.
BEAUTIFUL.
***********
I am grateful you are here, and you were led to this humble space. Truth. I am praying for you and that you will feel a gentle touch, a kindness, a peace this Thanksgiving, even in the midst of the hard you are walking.
Know that you are special. You are loved. You are not alone.
All is grace...always grace,
