We five will gather around the early morning
Thanksgiving table,
partly set for family who comes later in the
afternoon and the
food that will spill over,
more than
enough.
We will open the thankfulness box that we’ve filled
this month,
slip after slip in child and grownup
script,
words of gratitude, recounting
the more than
enough.
Papa and Mama,
a sleepover with Gaga,
dinner with Nana,
God’s help,
date night,
time with cousins and Opa and Oma,
my playdate
pretend fancy accents,
the leaves bright red glowing in the sunshine.
I remind them and they remind me to write it down.
Don’t forget about the
men who helped us with the grocery carts in the hard
rain outside the store,
they say.
We remember and repeat ourselves with our floaty
hearts and the word
love,
say the same blessings to make them new,
finding again ways to say
we are grateful,
so grateful for the Grace that gives
good gifts.
Food,
a warm house,
clothes to wear,
protection from the rain,
the ability to give.
This day of final preparations and cleaning and cooking
I can choose to live in the chaos
state or live
first and foremost
grateful,
hold what is good like those words in my hand,
in front of my face
because perfect is not
the point,
perfect is not the point,
but grace, unearned and abundant,
love.
And that grace, it is for you, too, with your joined hands and
upturned voices around the table of more than enough,
giving thanks,
saying grace,
voicing it aloud to remember.
Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends. I will be taking several days off to spend time with my family. I pray you enjoy your holiday in all its imperfect, grace-filled goodness.
An exciting update on yesterday’s post:
Giving through Pure Charity has enabled The Mercy House project to be fully funded. Woohoo! So now we are able to put our dollars to other charities. See the Pure Charity website for all the options.
Connecting through the power of stories written, spoken and lived
Pure Charity was at Allume. I was so impressed with them!
So grateful for you in my life Ashley! I love your “Thankfulness Box” idea & hope to maybe implement that next year.
lHave a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families…I love you!
Hi dear Ashley
I love your words about perfection not being the point! You know, I want to suggest that grace, unearned and abundant is the perfection personified through our Lord Jesus! Enjoy your Thanksgiving with your family. We in South Africa do not officially celebrate a Thanksgiving day and I am enjoying it through all you girls.
Much love to you
Mia
Happy Thanksgiving, my friend! What a great tradition!
I now have firsthand experience with this box and am imagining C’s little letters. Thankful for you, friend, and your special family. :) Enjoy your time recounting those blessings!
“Perfection” is not the point! Amen to that sister! And then, when I reconsider (or consider more fully) I wonder….
Perhaps it’s our definition of “perfect” that needs reworking. To consider a life, with its growing children, its homework and housework, its big and little messes, struggles, and squabbles, disappointments and successes, dust and laundry and dishes, its art and giggles, stories and shared meals around the table….. all of it lived with an eye on the blessings and the gratitude that flows, counting and storing them up in hearts and boxes – maybe that IS perfection. A life that is sometimes hard, and oftentimes sweet….with flesh and breath, and little hands to hold….maybe only in our “minds” does it get any “more perfect”, when truthfully, it can’t! ;)
(I want my own notion of “perfect” to change so that it looks more like “a perfect messy life lived gratefully!” I know you can help with that! :) )
Continued abundant blessings on your house and all who call it home! happy happy Thanksgiving! xxo
So grateful you pointed out “perfect is not the point”! How quickly I can fret like Martha when something like Thanksgiving comes along. I listened to a priest say it was Abraham Lincoln’s idea to set aside a day to be thankful in the middle of a war . . . 1863? I desire to keep it all about that – thankfulness, and appreciate your example.
Oh Ashley! Grateful for you and finding your words and inspired thoughts about Life, our lives. Thought I was going to just read and not get choked up but it snuck up on me again! Just at a little (big) recognition of the need to let go of (or redefine as your mama described so well) the idea of perfection and enjoy life. Hope you had a happy holiday and enjoyed the perfection of family time and Love. :) Love to you!