Skipping Thanksgiving

I am going to admit something. I used to be a person who waited until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas. Listening to Christmas music is another story but I waited to decorate for the first years of my marriage. Two things happened to change that.

The first thing that happened was that my family fell in love with Disneyland at Christmas. We love to go the week after Thanksgiving. The first year we went to Disney I waited until we got home to get Christmas ready. I was behind the rest of the season. It completely overwhelmed me to get ready after a big trip. So now I do a little at a time for a few weeks before Thanksgiving so that after Thanksgiving dinner we are ready to sit back and take in every moment of the Christmas Season without any worry about being ready. We get to live in every moment of Christmas and we love it. It is absolutely wonderful to me that Thanksgiving goes so perfectly with Christmas and that we get to experience joy, gratitude, love, hope, wonder and awe in two holidays that tie so perfectly together. And amazingly enough we never skip Thanksgiving. EVER!

 

 

The second thing that happened was 9/11; that horrible, soul-shaking, heart-breaking event that changed our sense of safety and tranquility forever. We went to Disneyland that November. We were scared to go, scared to fly, scared of evil people and what they might do. There was a somber feeling across the nation and a desperate need of hope. We needed some joy. So I started putting some up in my home....along with my turkeys and cornucopias. We put up wreaths, listened to songs of a glorious child being born to the Earth, put up our Nativity and celebrated the hope of good things and good people while we were overwhelmed with absolute gratitude at what we have been blessed with as a family. We celebrated Thanksgiving to the hilt and rode all those feel good moments on into the Christmas season.We found more joy. We loved it, we felt closer as a family and we shared our joy with everyone we could find.

 

I've said before that I don't care when you decide to celebrate, or decorate, or enjoy your own Christmas traditions. I feel that is such a personal thing. But I am amazed at the anger that is unleashed over people who embrace the whole holiday season and don't feel there has to be a grace period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want EVERYONE to enjoy their own holiday season however they see -or should I say FEEL fit. Worrying about whether others are skipping Thanksgiving because they find joy in the whole experience only takes away from your Thanksgiving-your feelings of joy and contentment. That's something I  don't want to give away to anyone. The stores are going to put out their decorations, people are going to do their shopping and when you think about it there really aren't Thanksgiving carols to play over the pa systems...I don't see that changing. So I let  the wonders and marvels of every song, decoration, sentiment and feeling into my soul. I let the magic of kindness, giving, gratitude, love for mankind and the miracle of a Savior give me peace. Then celebrate every single happy moment I can instead of letting "commercialism" eat away at my heart. It brings me a sense of respite, it gives me calm, it feeds my need for joy and BONUS: I am ALWAYS prepared for Christmas. Let the joy in. It's wonderful-I promise!

Ooey Gooey Mush

I spent 2-1/2 hours at Instacare today. Then I spent an hour and a half at the pharmacy. Good thing I took the whole day off work, huh?

Every year around this time I get sick. My body usually decides around the end of October that its walls of defense have crumbled against all the little viruses I get exposed to in my school of 600 cute but potential carriers. This year I felt I was doing quite well. I have had a cold for about 16 days running now. I lose my voice about every 3rd day but other than that it has been pretty mild and bearable. But I can't get well. So after a sleepless night I buckled under and headed into the doctor. They were swamped and then some. But I was extremely grateful for the time my doctor took with me once I got in there. He was kind and thorough and as I was leaving he thanked me for working with children. He apologized for the fact that I haven't been well but told me how much it meant to parents to have good people looking after their children every day. I was so honored to be able to be the recipient of his thanks, and so grateful he took the time to talk to me.

Turns out that this lingering cold has damaged my vocal cords and that is why I am in pain and constantly losing my voice. And I am supposed to limit the use of my voice while the steroids kick in-until Monday. Did I mention I work at an elementary school? I have a barrage of prescriptions and a multitude of thanks for the goodness I experience regularly. It helps offset the less enjoyable moments in life. As I sat there waiting for my prescriptions I reflected on a few instances filled with goodness that I've seen in the last 24 hours. I offer them as a little mush to soak into your heart, to make it warm and happy.

Just over the counter I listened to a pharmacist make a phone call. He was on the phone for a good half hour with a customer. He was kind and patient, and trying to help her find any way he could to help her afford her medications. He went through plans, prescription programs and rewards with her and had them printed for her if she wanted to come look them over more thoroughly. I am sure he didn't have that kind of time with the amount of traffic that was coming in, but I was impressed and touched by his efforts and kindness.

Yesterday on the playground a sweet boy whom I have mentioned in my blog before came running up to me. When we see kids doing good things we give them a little paper that says they were "caught being good". When they have collected several, they can trade them in for a prize, or just pay money to get the prize. This boy had saved up 10 caught being goods for 3 weeks and had enough to "buy" a little eraser. He was so excited and so proud of it. Not a minute later a little girl came to me in a panic because she had lost the last quarter she needed to buy her eraser. She was teary and sad. I watched this boy  walk up to her, put an arm around her and hug her tears away. He took his brand new eraser that he had worked so hard for and gave it to her without a second thought to what he was losing. He told her, "It's okay. This is yours now. No need to be sad anymore. I have made it okay." It was all I could do not to cry. I told this boy how wonderful it was that he had been so generous. He said, "Well, she was sad. I am a good boy. I needed to make her happy again."

Little miracles created from big hearts. Oh how I love it. Ooey gooey mush. It makes the world right and it makes me so grateful.

*PS-I have to admit that I took it upon myself to make things right for this boy. I gave him enough more caught being goods to get himself an eraser. His generosity deserved much more than that.

I Assume

We all do it.  Every last one of us, every day. Sometimes it's a good thing, and sometimes it takes a bad turn. We assume.  The human condition makes it so.

Most of the time our assumptions are innocent. They are a reaction. They are the effects of assessment.

When at a stop sign,  we assume other traffic will obey right of way rules and all will go well. We assume the best, and for the most part it suits us well to think that way.  But once in awhile,  the assumption is wrong, and it costs. Hopefully just a dent in the fender, but it could be so much more.

Many of our assumptions are made in great faith. For instance I assume that the donut I'm about to eat is going to taste heavenly, that the person my child is spending the evening with  is a kind, mature (enough) friend that my child will come home undamaged and whole, that my boss values what I do enough to continue to give me a paycheck each month, that the employee at the check out stand will be cheerful and treat me well as a customer. We assume most people are good, or at least have good in them. All good things to assume. Assuming the best instead of the worst can be a virtue.

Then there are the things that maybe we shouldn't assume. These things are harder to give examples of because assumptions can be personal, they can come with feelings, and there are sometimes valid reasons supporting many assumptions. Usually a past experience comes into play somewhere along the way. But relationships are a place where caution needs to be used when assuming. And relationships are where we tend to assume the most often. When you love someone it is natural to want to see the best in them. It is also easy to come down the hardest on them.

I find when I am questioning where I stand with someone, that is when I am the most likely to assume the worst-not about the person but about what they feel about me. It's a horrible feeling to wonder where you stand in the heart of someone you care about. Keeping this in mind, I don't want anyone else to feel that way. I am pretty open about my feelings and my love for others. Then there's no question. But if there is, I hope I am approachable enough to be asked. And most likely I love you. I guarantee I can see the good in you. And absolutely I can be convinced of the best in you-by you and the things that you do.