Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Pondering thankfulness

Wow! Where did November go?

I spent the last week in Ukraine getting Project TLC off the ground. Now I'm home and so very thankful, but perhaps not in the ways you might expect.

After living with Ukrainians and spending time with Ukrainians and trying to understand life in Ukraine I'm less thankful for what I have.

Did you get that? I'm less thankful. At least for my material possessions.

I'm more thankful for the experiences and relationships that have blessed my life. I hope to explore this more completely in the near future. But, for today, let me ask this question: are you holding onto something of material value that might be interfering with the relationships of value in your life?

Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States. Instead of heading out to the grocery store to gather the ingredients for all the traditional American Thanksgiving dishes, I'm going to do something different. I'm cleaning out my freezer.

In the past I have bought things to stick in the freezer, and they are never seen again. Why must I hoard food this way? So today I started with the top shelf. I found a mini loaf of cocktail bread, some fruit and pecans and some freezer burned stuff that went straight into the trash. The pecans will make a nice pie. Ruby and I ripped up the old bread to use in stuffing.


It was fun to spend time with my daughter, working together in the kitchen. I look forward to finding more ways to put relationship over possession as we move toward Christmas.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

"holding onto something of material value that might be interfering with the relationships of value in your life?"

Wow, Stephanie, our angels must be talking to each other. Much different circumstances (the settling of my mother's estate) but I was blessed to be guided toward relationships at the height of the situation.

Still loving my long-time online friendships! Merry Christmas to all of the Ralph Crew!

Barbara