Jenny On the Spot

I wrote the following for my MOPS group’s newsletter earlier this month. I have tweaked it some - cut some words, cut a portion of the “Mommy specific” wording, and included a link… a bloggers prerogative.

Thanksgiving is upon us once again. The first thing that pops into my head when the season “hits” is - “What am I going to cook?” I am such a “mom”. Diving head first, tasking, cleaning, planning, preparing,making lists and flipping through the cookbooks.

My daughter Lucy taught me something recently. We were waiting in a parking lot. A murder of crows gathered ’round some food item that crows like to eat - blech! I just stared and thought to myself, “Ugly birds. If they are still there when I need to leave, then I'll have to shoo them away with my car, and I would rather just,.” Well, you get the picture. Mid-murder plot thought, I heard Lucy, my 2.5 year-old squeal in joyous tones, “Oooh Wook Mama!!! Pwetty birdies! Woook at the pwetty birdies! OOOOH!”

At that moment… I wished I had the mind of a child. As I was building in frustration and anxiety, she was delighting in creation, with a truly joyful heart. I long for my mind to innately “go” to the joy, the delight…

Coming back around - Thanksgiving. Planning. Cooking. Shopping, It all still needs to get done, but I need to shift my mind just a touch. Maybe my I need to “dive heart first” into the reasons I have to be thankful. My reasons to be thankful are different than yours, but I hope my lesson can encourage a shift from the chaos of the upcoming holidays - if even for a moment,

What are the things you are thankful for? Shelter, healthy children, gas in the car, friendship, family, maybe you don't have to cook this year, or maybe it is finally YOUR turn to cook Thanksgiving dinner,

Whatever the list - think about those things when the ”to do” list gets longer than the paper… when it stretches longer than hours in the day. The numbers of things yet to do may be many, but we will never have enough paper to list all the things we are should be thankful for.