Detachment (2020 Thanksgiving)
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Friday introductions. I’m not shopping today. I didn’t get a family photo. My house is a mess. And everyone’s sleeping in until they can’t sleep anymore (apparently). Which is a great time to just say hello here!
This photo was taken in the midst of prep for my first ever Thanksgiving in my own home. I have a Pinterest board full of ideas for that anticipated event... but I didn’t know it would be this year. So...
There was no pretty decor. There was laundry on the sofa. We had no green beans (Midwest shocker), and I felt a little weepy over circumstances that blew up my Pinterest dream and separated us from family.
But I was surprised by how the sorrows illuminated the blessing, and moved by the goodness which God has provided...
How my husband has built a home of faith and stability and love... the presence of all my kids...
The almost painful clarity of the gift of 2020. It has thrown us all into the fire and I see in my own family a true purifying. An amplifying. A tempering.
Also in 2020, my faith (which has been tried and tested in the last 5 years) has been strengthened with a companion emotional consolation that I quite honestly never expected to experience again.
I was happier than I look in the photo. It accurately depicts my level of fatigue and also some sorrow. But yes, I was happy.
Whatever comes in the next year is in His hands. And I’m working ahead of time on detaching from expectations for Christmas.
Jesus comes. And maybe we will have to light our fire of praise in the woods like we did for Easter. I don’t know. Whatever He wills. I pray that I will meet it all with His unmerited grace. A priest I know recently said that our faith should not be just an introspective spiritual journey... but should manifest concretely in the world.
And the word that has grown louder for me this Thanksgiving is TESTIFY.
Not sure this has been a great introduction! But it’s like me, I guess... overly introspective and wandering!
Other than that I’m a mom with 9 kids (one loss) ages 4-23. Wife to a fire chief/theologian. Author (click here for my book!), natural health and medical freedom advocate. AMDG