This year’s thanksgiving feels different, because it is different. Across the United States, people are choosing to shift a little in regards to how and when they will meet for thanksgiving. This is absolutely changing the way traditionally celebrated. Although that is completely true, what is also true is our ability to adapt and change. Our ability to create a new way to connect and still celebrate life to its fullest.

Nine years ago our thanksgiving was quite different from a traditional one.  We have just bought our new home but the closing was delayed and we had only days to move from our apartment to our new home. I remembered how scared I was as a first time homeowner moving to a home that was not move-in ready and needed so much work. I also remember that it was our first thanksgiving in this house, no furniture, a folding table and were scrambling around to at least finish painting so we could move the following Monday.   Spoiler alert: We did not finish painting but it was not the end of the world.  We had a great time!  Just the three of us in our little world marveling at the miracle of our first home. Traditionally, we would have time with friends and family but not this thanksgiving, the rest of the world was celebrating while we were working.   But we stop to give thanks, to focus on having a moment of reflection and Awe. 

This year does not look so different from 9 years ago; we scaled back from spending time with our extended family  and have chosen to stay home and celebrate thanksgiving in our own little world, Just us! One thing is for sure I will also be marveling at the miracles of this season.  As I look back, it has been almost 9 months since this whole pandemic started.  Our lives changed in a minute and now we are in a different world. However, in the midst of uncertainty we can be thankful!

• I want to highlight four things I am thankful for related to my 2020 journey:
•  🍁I am thankful for our health. I have not gotten sick in 9 months. That is a miracle in itself, as I normally get sick when season changes from spring to winter and from fall to winter. Most importantly, God’s hand upon us has spared us from COVID.
• 🍁I am thankful for Provision.  Just a month before the pandemic we learned that one of my husband’s schools was closing for good and he would need another school to secure a full time and continue having benefits.  Getting a job as a music teacher during a pandemic in which you can sing and or play instruments due to the risk of transmission wain itself a miracle.  God provided and we are thankful.
• 🍁I am thankful for the changes, the challenges and the struggle. They have made us stronger. They made us wiser. They build our faith and our character. 
•  🍁I am thankful for the future. There are still things we need to overcome and figure out but I know that what the future holds is good because God is with us.
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However you have chosen to celebrate this thanksgiving, I want to encourage you to look back and write yourself a list of at least three things you are thankful for amid the pandemic. You'll be surprised at how God has come through for you. 

                 "Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, 

                  for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things." ~ Psalm 107:8-9

One more thing. Today, choose to be fully present with those around you. Take time to laugh, play and reconnect. Sometimes, We are together but the routines play a role in keeping us busy to the point that we tend to go through the motions and we forget to be fully present in the moment.  Not today! I love how  

Maya Angelou says it:

                      “Be present in all things and BE thankful for all things.”

So today, dare to be fully present and  thankful in all things! There is always something to be thankful for. Have a Happy Thanksgiving. XOXO ~Barb