It has been a busy last three months with travels, teaching, and transitions, but tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I love our family’s tradition of artistically articulating our thanks through homemade placemats and hand turkeys. In my early morning ponderings, with a few quiet moments between breakfast, coffee and sending Gary off to work and getting the laundry machines free for the frenzy of returning young adult children’s loads, I write my personal litany of thanks, “getting my creative on” as we call it in our house. Hope it encourages you and yours. 

Blessings and thanks from one who is blessed and thankful, Mylinda 

For waking me up this morning, for life and breath and a new day, I’m thankful, O God. 

(A common phrase taught to me by my friends from Limon, Costa Rica)

 For the daily “I love you” “I love you more” exchange, I’m thankful. 

 (A ritual sometimes face to face and other times via skype or long distance call)

 For the cozy cottage near Steamboat Island, WA that has become “home” for now, for the mobile home in Calimesa, CA that welcomes the “daughter who left” back home to hug her family tree, for the villa in Antigua, Guatemala that oozes sacred space for story sharing with women friends who celebrate my many “heart homes”, for the guest rooms in Seattle, Guatemala, Massachusetts, Indiana, La Paz, Mexicali, and Chula Vista that make room in “their homes” for my rest to make glad my heart, I’m thankful. 

(I’ve laid my head on 10 different pillows over the past 3 months) 

For new and old friends whose heart language is Spanish sharing their truth, courage and faith with me through their stories, I’m thankful.

 For new and old friends whose heart language is English who check in and ask how I’m adjusting to my new job, who invite me to coffee or to speak in their pulpits, who engage me in deep conversations about justice, community, and grief, I’m thankful. 

For significant and silly conversations, ones walking through open-air markets in Central America with Mayan teenagers, others in Indianapolis joking around with Chin refugees from Burma or with open Bibles around plastic Costco tables with Mexican friends, I’m thankful. 

For tears of vulnerability courageously shared, I’m thankful. 

(I’ve witnessed them in the eyes of a recovering exploiter of people, heard them over the phone with a lonely grandma, and in the voice of a distraught one day and jubilant the next, young adult experiencing the emotional roller coaster of relationships and career possibilities) 

For deer in the backyard, sunrises and sunsets, stars, thick fog and glorious sunshine, volcanoes, snow covered mountains, fireplaces and candlelight, ancient ruins and new seminary classrooms, friendships that go way back and those just beginning, belly laughs and tired sighs, chaos and calm, tasty food and shared tea, homemade applesauce and spicy pozole, warm blankets in bed and a shared jacket while sitting close in a cold Tijuana church, explosions of fall color on the East Coast, contrasts of blue ocean against tan desert in Mexico and evergreen abundance back home in Washington, smell of my husband’s cologne and apple cider, art work appreciated and created together, Sunday afternoon phone calls from my college boy son, Scrabble games and Karaoke night potlucks that my Mom enjoys now a year after her life-threatening stroke, powerful women and men preachers, quiet and thoughtful comments spoken at just the right time, forgiveness given and received, grace lived out in everyday acts of service and kindness, impromptu piano concerts by a homeless guest at Table Grace, thank you’s spoken and sent and walks with friends, veggie scrambles and farmer’s markets, sweat from long bike rides, yard work, brick and mortar construction and overcoming writing project procrastination, for God’s love acceptance and grace, and for YOU, I’m thankful. 

 Now it’s your turn, for what are you thankful?