Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thanksgiving Thoughts

  
Thanksgiving week!
How will you spend your Thanksgiving this year?

We'll be loading the car for Indianapolis tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with husband's side of the family.
I anticipate that Starbucks red cups will be a part of the road trip, as well as those sweet-lingering car conversations that make up for shorter strands of communication that get folded into full days, along with all those piled loads of laundry and extra cups of flour.

I love the ambiance that the holidays invite, and I RSVP "accepts with pleasure" every time.
The ambiance invite really is so hospitable, and I like to come early, stay late, and eat all the food, so to speak.
Or literally.

Sara Bareilles, Alli Rogers, and the Civil Wars on Pandora.
Rainy days on cue for baking and packing.
Kitchen creations of pumpkin and cream cheese combinations, and the family recipes for cinnamon rolls and derby pie.

I have to admit, I've enjoyed some solitary hours at home preparing for the holiday with my hands, but even more so having the quiet to prepare within me.
For me, that has been to let my eyes brim with tears over the heights of joy inside of me,
and to let my eyes brim with tears over the places of sadness that are inside me just as honestly.

While I've done sink after sink of dishes, I've been thinking about how thanksgiving or Thanksgiving isn't about suppressing the pain or sadness that trace all of our lives in particular paths and patterns.
It's about being able to sit with our unanswered questions, aches and pains, and hopes deferred, and say,
yes, those things are there.... but what else is there? 

Oh, what else is there!
Oh, oh, oh!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for these beautiful words of truth. And can I add that you have really really good taste in music?! I love you...EVERYTHING about you! And can I add(on a completely unrelated side note) that your recommendation to buy that little black dress from Anne Taylor Loft two springs ago was one of the best pieces of fashion advice I have ever received. Seriously, I wear it every other week. But why am I surprised?! You always give good advice!

Molly said...

We went to Indianapolis too! That's where my husband's family got to celebrate Thanksgiving and Grandpa's 80th Birthday surrounded by generations of family. I hope you have the chance to put up your recipe for Derby Pie sometime, I so wanted to bring one for our meal but ran out of time and don't have a tested and tried recipe.

dave+sonya said...

"being able to sit with unanswered questions", yet with eyes full of the joy that overflows...
beautiful
~Sonya