Just give thanks

So many blog posts and magazine articles floating around this week.  Well-intentioned admonitions to give thanks deeply, creatively.  We are inspired to live these glory days of Thanksgiving beautifully, modeling this extravagant full-heart gratitude for our children. And then we feel the pressure to document it too, add a filter and a Bible verse and share it on Instagram with a few hundred of our closest friends "to encourage them."  

Don't get me wrong, sometimes sharing and tweeting and passing it along is simply an overflow... but other times it's not.  Sometimes we're just busy living our Thanksgiving in the everyday ways, with shirt sleeves rolled up, and that's okay too.

There are holidays when we're just doing life - real life - good life - with store bought cranberry sauce.  Serving up Pillsbury pre-made sugar cookies and a pie from Marie Calendar's with a can of Redi-Whip.  Because not every holiday is glamorous, and no amount of cropped, filtered, uploaded graphics can make it anything other than what it is. Real. Life. With happy, dirty kids out in the backyard wearing their everyday clothes.

Here we are, only a few days before Thanksgiving, and I have half a dozen blog posts I started and then never finished because I've been doing Thanksgiving school parties, making little party-favors with pretzels and candy corn and a simple ribbon curled up around a bow.  Too many crafts and errands and sporting events to fit one complete blog post in.  And tomorrow morning we're leaving for a little family vacation before arriving at my mom's house for Thanksgiving Day. So I'm doing a few more loads of laundry tonight, and as the dryer hums and the washing machine spins here in my laundry room / office, I'm Thankful that I'm not spinning.  So Thankful, in fact, that I went in and deleted each and every half-written Thanksgiving Day post I'd started.  Instead I'm just going to tell you and me both this simple truth.

Be Thankful....

Wherever you are - Whomever you are with - Whatever you've accomplished, or didn't accomplish - The groceries that have been bought and the recipes that you've decided to let slide - The family and friends you will see and those you won't be able to fit into your holiday plans this year... Be Thankful. This is your Thanksgiving Day pass to just give thanks.

Pass it on...