I know this year has not been so kind. With all that is going on in the world, some may find it hard to see what they are thankful for this holiday season. I, for one, have difficult days trying find thankful moments. There’s either not enough time in the day, my children constantly asking me for time, too many money worries, too many things going on daily that never get done.
Life is filled with uncertainty, but from my experience sometimes you need your days filled with these moments to be appreciative.
My teens are 14 and 13, and when they both talk about how they will be going to college, I get choked up. I begin to think about how their daily lives will be and how quiet my house will become with just one child left at home.
I will not hear the arguing. I will not hear the “you had it last, you put it away” fights I now realize I am thankful for. Though there are super annoying moments, I realize when I am laying my head down at night that one day I won’t have children to tuck in at night. As they grow, I am filled with gratitude because one day there won’t be so many messes.
I think about how my house is filled with too many laundry baskets, too many cups in my teens’ rooms, trash overflowing. But one day that will not be a topic of discussion at dinner. One day it will just be my husband and me at the dinner table. That moment is humbling because right now when my kids are home or at school, I seem to be annoyed that there is not enough time to deal with school, work, or just the daily house issues.
But one day I will have enough time to do all those things. So to the mama surrounded by toys and those last-minute runs to charge your child’s computer in the middle of the night: Though it may be frustrating, in that walk back to bed, be thankful for the annoyance because one day you won’t need to be.
It is also okay to feel like you do not have a grip on everything, and it is another thing I am thankful for. I have such a busy life because it is one I created. As teen I remember thinking I would never get these moments of motherhood. These moments of kissing my husband as we cook dinner together, as our kids sit at the dining room table and talk over each other.
My holidays, like many around the world, will be different. We will not be figuring out how to make 45 chairs fit in a small living room. We will be hosting a Zoom call, so that we can all see each other even for only a few moments. It is hard, and it is depressing to see loved ones and not be able to hug them, and that will be difficult because I come from a large family. This has been such a trying time for us, but I will find gratitude in the ability to have so many people I call family.
How you find gratitude during these hard times?
