A week of thanks

Early Saturday morning, I received the kind of phone call that immediately made me want to hurry home to be with my family. Only, we'd just landed in Connecticut to spend the weekend with T's family. I was still buckled in on the airplane, in fact; it was not yet safe to move around the aircraft. North Carolina wasn't going to happen.

The next two days were spent in a really beautiful way. In fact, for a "Fakesgiving" weekend, thankfulness was very much in the forefront for me. I'm thankful that my in-laws are not just people I've been forced to reckon with during the holidays; they're people I feel honored to have in my life. I'm thankful that during a weekend when I wasn't at my best, they gathered around me and sent love out into the universe to my family. They made me a stiff drink, they set me up on a stool during a fabulous afternoon of cooking, they snuck out with me for adventures in between meals, they made me one of their own. I wasn't sure on that airplane if I could get through the next two days, yet by Sunday night, I was sure I shouldn't have been anywhere else.

We'll be with my family this weekend, which I would love to hurry up and get here already. It's where we need to be; it's where we are needed. But in this moment in between our families, at the tail end of a year that has brought with it losses and illnesses and more than we bargained for, I remain grateful for all that I have, and so very thankful for the love surrounding me.

 

Sunrise from the guest bedroom

Guilford, CT