December 28th
Gratitude: Thanksgiving was last month, I know. However, as we near closer to the end of this year what is it that you’re truly thankful for? When and how do you feel gratitude? How do you show it?
One of my favorite lines from any story is from Winnie The Pooh when Piglet came up to Pooh:
It's conversations like that I am most thankful for this year. Not only that, but being able to share the experiences with other people just as meaningful to me.
Over the long Christmas holiday weekend, I spent several hours up late polishing off a bottle of wine talking with my Mom. As an only child, there are times in which my conversations with her are the ones I would have with an older sister. That being said, because I am an only child I get to choose my siblings. I think so anyway. There's the saying that blood is thicker than water, but I believe love is thicker than blood.
When my Grandma passed away just over 5 years ago, I wrote in what would be read at her funeral, that because she chose my Mom (through adoption), I was blessed to be her daughter. Love is thicker than blood.
I started talking to my Mom about a friend of mine who I would like to consider a brother, his wife, his young son and their families. Something about these people really just feels like family. It's one of those relationships where you pick up where you left off, have cried over nonsense, let time go by needlessly, and wake up in the morning knowing everything is going to be alright so long as they're in the world.
This past summer, while on that same wonderful and memory-filled trip to Tennessee, a conversation reminiscent of the one between Piglet and Pooh took place.
It was the day of our mutual friend's wedding. My dear friend was a groomsmen, and his wife, with whom I'd spent much of the previous 36 hours getting to know for this first time and I were waiting in the honeymoon suite on the Delta Queen, where the wedding was taking place. We spent time in there leading up to the wedding - to avoid the drenching hot and humid weather - and immediately following.
To our credit, we were both hopped up on Twizzlers (you know, the candy), really bad food, and we were just hot. The two of us girls did our best to cool down and dry off after our seven minutes in the sun and eventually just crashed on the bed. It was the coolest spot in the room.
My dear friend came in, and had some Twizzlers, too.
He sat at a table while we relax on the bed. He looked up at us, and almost as concerned as a boy asking a girl for her phone number he said, "Now that you two have spent time together, what do you think?"
We laughed, and we giggled. It was so important to him that we like each other, that it made the trip matter all that more. Even if it wasn't important, it felt important.
I'm not even sure what I said, but I remember the moment, so much that I shared it with my own Mom. She, in turn, was just as grateful. After all, she knows what it's like to be chosen and knows what it is like to love.
In the end, it felt like Piglet just saying to Pooh, "I just wanted to be sure of you."
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