Thinking about Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is upon us once again. The first thing that pops into my head when the season “hits” is – “What am I going to cook?” I am such a “mom” — diving head-first, tasking, cleaning, planning, preparing, making lists and flipping through the cookbooks.

When my daughter Lucy was 2ish we had a little experience. We were waiting in a parking lot. A murder of crows gathered ’round some food item that crows like to eat – blech! I just stared and thought to myself, “Ugly birds. If they are still there when I need to leave, then I’ll have to shoo them away with my car, and I would rather just…”

Well, you get the picture. Mid-murder plot, I heard Lucy squeal in joyous tones, “Oooh Wook Mama!!! Pwetty birdies! Woook at the pwetty birdies! OOOOH!”

At that moment…I wished I had the mind of an innocent child. My mind had begun to spin in a vortex of planning and frustration and anxiety. Meanwhile, she was delighting in creation and nature, with a truly joyful heart.

I long for my mind to innately “go” to the joy, the delight… Being thankful and seeing good is natural, not an effort.

Coming back around – Thanksgiving. Planning. Cooking. Shopping, It all still needs to get done, but I see I need to shift my mind just a touch. Maybe I need to “dive heart first” into the reasons I have to be thankful.

What are the things you are thankful for? Shelter, healthy children, gas in the car, friendship, family, maybe you don’t have to cook this year, or maybe it is finally YOUR turn to cook Thanksgiving dinner?

Whatever the list – think about those things when the “to do” list gets longer than the paper… when it stretches longer than hours in the day. The numbers of things to do may be many, but we will never have enough paper to list all the things we are and should be thankful for.

Jenny Ingram is the mother of three children (ages 4, 7 and 10) and lives near Seattle in Washington state. She loves writing here at Type-A Mom, for her own blog (Jenny On The Spot), and has a passion for encouraging moms in this journey…for she has been encouraged. You can also find her on Twitter!

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