Giving Thanks

I’m pretty fond of traditions. My Thanksgiving menu stays the same year after year—turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, salad. Cranberry sauce that invariably remains forgotten, the can unopened. (Yes. Canned cranberry sauce. Stop judging me.) Pies to fill any remaining room in your appetite. Football on TV once you’re too stuffed to move; friends and family to share it all with. Followed by more pie.

As my kids have grown, married their beloveds and begun to grow their own families, we have begun a new holiday tradition—Sume Thanksgiving.

Sume Thanksgiving happens on the Friday right after Thanksgiving. The menu is the same as it would have been on Thursday Thanksgiving—only with a smaller turkey and fewer pounds of potatoes needing peeling. On Sume Thanksgiving, we are slightly less gluttonous, having also indulged at various other Thanksgiving locations. Fortunately, there is still plenty of football to be had, so that indulgence remains the same.

Sume Thanksgiving has given me appreciation for traditions old and blessings new; that change can be good. Yes. I said it. Change can be good.

Or maybe—what I mean to say is that from change—even the kind of change that we don’t choose—a blessing can grow.

This year, Sume Thanksgiving is full of Blessings, we have much to be thankful for. Even amid our celebrating, though, I’m aware of those whose hearts are currently broken. My prayer is for peace, for grace, and for Light to shine even in the darkness.

I am thankful for YOU, Gentle Reader, and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

May we all have blessings to count.