It's that time of year again. The time for family gatherings, loads of turkey, giving thanks and lots and lots of pie. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Except, things are a bit different this year for a couple different reasons.
1)There is the obvious reason that Thanksgiving is not celebrated in the UK as a national tradition.
2) It is really not that cold here, no snow, and there is still green, green grass.
3) No time away from school with thoughts of finals in the midst (can't say I miss that too much). Though, this also means no DS Thanksgiving dinner. Sad. For all the Cobbers out there, you know what goodness I'm talking about.
4) No family dinner filled with playing house in my grandparents basement with my two beautiful, baby cousins and some sort of political or religious discussion as well as playing catch up with relatives I don't see all that often.
I'm not going to say that I'm not sad because, frankly, there is a part of me that really is sad. This is strange time in Edinburgh because everyone is looking straight forward to Christmas. Not to say that this doesn't happen in the States, but it is much more evident here with the lack of Thanksgiving. This is my first Thanksgiving away from home and not just because I'm stuck in Fargo or have to work but because I am thousands of miles away. Strange. I will miss Thanksgiving a lot. I didn't realize how important it was to me until now. I'm going to try and introduce it a bunch here, probably asking people what they're thankful for and filling everyone in on the tradition, though they're all quite aware of what Thanksgiving is. I've thought about trying to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but that scares me, though I've had some practice at Christikon with the help of our trusty head cook (shout out to THE Peter Olsen!). So I may not go that route.
I do know this. I have an abundant amount to be thankful for. I'm now entering my third month of service and really, time has been flying. When I look back and think about my time here so far, I can see that the first month was difficult in many ways. So difficult. The second month was better and the newness of being here as truly worn off now as I go into my third month. Normalcy has set in to the point where I can actually think about other things on my walk to work other than where to turn. And as I've been able to think about how very thankful I am, I could list reasons upon reasons as to why my heart is celebrating. Here are a few of them:
1) My flatmates. Irina, Janet, and I have slowly been getting to know one another. We laugh together and think critically about the craziness that we encounter daily at the hostel. We talk about faith, love, and life and these two women are seriously fantastic. The three of us are quite different, but some how we fit perfectly in our cute, little flat.
2) Window checks, tea break, devotions, and the Pool room. All of these places are where time with residents is intentional and seriously so fun. It is a time for me to get to hear the stories of the guys as well as learn from them and offer a listening ear. I could go on and on about this.
3) Bethany House staff. What a laugh it is to come to work. I look forward to it daily and that is not a joke. The banter, jokes and laughter help each of us get through the long day and difficult situations. These people challenge me in every way and support me. They're great.
4) Courage. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to use the little courage that I have to step into a church service without knowing a soul (then meeting SWEET people) or asking directions to find a certain post office or getting on a bus and not really knowing the exact stop to get off at. With an ounce of courage, I am convinced you can do anything.
5) Support from home and YAGM. As I write this, I can feel my eyes welling up because yes, I am a sap and also it makes me feel so humbled to know that I have incredible family and friend support at home in the States. With different Skype dates, letters, words of hope and affirmation I consistently feel loved. Overwhelmingly loved. And as for YAGM, knowing that I have family all over the world and people serving in fantastic countries is more encouraging than I can put into words. YAGM volunteers will change the world. I am convinced of this by the people I know. Also, the YAGM coordinators (shout out to Heidi, Stephanie, and Tanya!) have given me so much.
6) My volunteer coordinator, Julie, here in Edinburgh. This lady and I meet up every couple of weeks and reflect on life, faith and just everything. She is the coolest and so easy to talk to. She seen me cry, let me gush about things I'm excited about, and vent about frustrations here and back home. She gives great advice, listens, and laughs with me. Love her.
I could seriously go on and on. I'm not kidding, my cup is overflowing again and again.
And though I am not celebrating Thanksgiving in the traditional sense, I had this realization:
Every time we have backpackers out at Christikon, the final dinner is Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, mash, stuffing (the best ever), gravy, veggies, and community. I have had this turkey dinner NUMEROUS times throughout the past three summers there and now I feel like there were a couple different reasons for this. 1) to give thanks for the backpackers arriving back safely 2) in case, I'm in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I can look back and smile at the excess amounts of turkey dinners I've been blessed to be at.
Cool, huh? Life is funny sometimes.
I want to close with the prayer we sing at every turkey dinner at Christikon. It goes like this:
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
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