1000 Gifts Friday-Week 6

It would be a little bit lame if I missed posting on 1000 Gifts Friday because Thanksgiving has thrown me off schedule wouldn’t it? Sorry, I’ve been too busy stuffing my face with turkey and then laying around moaning in the name of giving thanks to actually give thanks.

Well, it may be late in the day, but here are the things I wanted to share from this week.

1. I’m thankful that I have the type of marriage, the type of husband, where a potential disaster has no power to cause strife. Wednesday evening the alternator broke in our vehicle. In the home of my childhood a car that was dead and needed repair the day before Thanksgiving would have been anything but cause for thanksgiving. There would have at least been bickering, maybe even full on fighting about it between my parents. There would have been stress and fear and impatience among us kids as we alternately hoped that dad could fix the car so we could go and hid behind things to try and escape the emotional fallout of their anger spilling over onto everything around us.

Here’s what happened instead. The GH called a friend he was supposed to meet with that night, and the friend came to meet him and drove him to get a new alternator as the tow truck dropped off our vehicle. Then he spent the evening in pleasant conversation with that friend and then with me. Early the next morning,(Thanksgiving Day) before I even woke up, he was helping the kids find “work clothes” so that they could go and help him fix his car. They all cheerfully trooped out together and thought it was the funnest thing ever to get to help daddy. I made breakfast for them all when they got back inside, alternator replaced.

That would never have happened in the family I grew up in. And the story is only improved by my relating to you that the car still wouldn’t start because of something about the distributor cap needing to be readjusted or some such, and the ride we tagged to Beema’s house in her car, and the night we spent there, and the fact that the GH finally got the car to start this evening after several more hours. ALL without fighting, or unpleasantness, or anyone sulking about the inconvenience. Including me. Which means I’ve started to out grow the habits of relating from my childhood. This gives me great joy.

2. The unexpected gift of a walk to the store after a rain shower. I was very prepared to be upset about the whole thing. I opened the cupboard under the bathroom sink to get laundry detergent and discovered a leak, just small enough to soak all of the clean towels. Now I had two more loads of laundry and not enough quarters. It was a grey, rainy, dismal day and I needed to pack everyone up and walk to the store to get enough quarters to finish the laundry.

Only, when I got outside it was sunny, and the air smelled fresh and the breeze was scouring everything and sending puffy clouds scudding across a blue sky. We had a lovely invigorating walk and I reflected that I wouldn’t have even gone outside at all if it wasn’t for the towels. I would have missed it.

3. I would also have missed the sight of the Boy proudly walking down the street with Little cradled in his arms, her head on his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his neck.

4. I started to teach the Girl to knit this week. It’s our special project. She’s learned one stitch, though it’s excruciatingly slow. But I don’t mind. I get to sit with my arms around her and help her learn and I love every second. I keep hoping that this is one of those things that will go deep into her memory too and she’ll be able to go back to at least one thing where her mommy got it right, and was content to just spend time with her.

5. I almost forgot to include this one because unlike the others it’s the absence of something, rather than the thing itself. I am thankful that there is not one thing I can think of going out and spending money on today. I have no desire for anything that I don’t already have, and no need to go an purchase anything. I even have a hard time thinking of gifts for the girls for their birthday this month, because they have so much already, it’s hard for me to think of anything else that they might need or want. And I’m glad that I have that kind of peace growing in me this year toward stuff. It’s felt really great to see the empty spaces as I start to pack and get rid of things that aren’t coming with us.

The gratitude community is here.

I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous time with your loved ones, And I Hope you have much in you life to give thanks for. I continue to be glad fro each and every person who leaves a comments or drops me a note here on this corner of the internet, and who give generously, even sacrificially I suspect for some of you, to help take care of kids you have never met in a country you may have never been to. I feel privileged to be allowed to share parts of this journey with with you all.