Sheila Sims Iding
I am blessed. You’ve heard me say it before. I say it often because I cannot believe how my life is filled with gifts from God. And on this Thanksgiving it’s good to not only count your blessings but reflect on them as well. And you don’t have to look too far. Last year I looked back on the adversities of my life to see the blessings within each challenge. This year I just look at the blessings that begin here at home…where I sit. Let the counting begin:
1. Family Room: A family room is full of blessings even before people decorate it. Family pictures from recent times and from past generations. Books from Bibles to Biographies and from children’s books to books my dad read as a child. Afghans folded neatly on the couch (for now) and dog toys neatly in his basket (for now.) Mostly, the blessings of a family room are the memories that decorate each and every corner of that gathering room.
2. Kitchen Table: A kitchen table contains many blessings even before the food is served. If kitchen tables could talk, each would be an award-winning book of people and families and life. But this kitchen table is magic. It transforms into a well-used “desk” for a teacher and a writer and a dreamer. Lap tops and iPads, pencils and Sharpies, notes on a Post-it pad and thoughts in a brain, and wishes in a heart are part of the blessings here. So is the magic of how lessons come to life, words turn into stories and dreams turn into…well…still dreams.
3. Kitchen: Not every kitchen is blessed with food. Not every kitchen is blessed with a pantry that is too full and a refrigerator even more full. Especially today. We have to be aware of that…constantly aware. But beyond the food, if you know me well enough, you know the blessings of my kitchen aren’t the pots and pans and cooking utensils. The blessings are the refrigerator magnets that represent our family and pets and the pictures that represent family, friends and Godsons. The blessings also include the medicine in that often-used medicine drawer that keep our lungs, our bodies, and, this year, our eyes healthy and healing. How many poor people need medicine they can’t get? I’ve come to embrace the blessing of a medicine drawer. From food, to medicine, to pet bowls to pictures…our kitchen is full of blessings.
4. Dining Room: Our dining room will not be used for the tradition Thanksgiving dinner this year. That would be a blessing. But it is now full of Christmas presents waiting to be wrapped and Christmas cards waiting to be sent. I like a neat orderly dining room but, truth is, this little-used room becomes a giant junk drawer for packages, mending, dishes and what-nots. I usually am bothered by the “clutter” in there but this time of year I celebrate the collections of the season.
5. Living Room: Our living room is a complete misnomer. We don’t do much living there. But it is blessed with my grandma’s piano, Pat’s mom’s chair, his dad’s curio cabinet and his grandfather’s clock, . It is also decorated with family photographs and my favorite family picture…an oil painting Pat’s mom did of Joey when he was two. So in a way it is a living room celebrating the “living” of past family. (And Oscar’s apartment because he spends most of his day there. He thinks he owns that space and we don’t tell him differently.)
6. The Den: The den is full of blessings…especially now. Before “now” it was full of the blessings of books and pictures, a computer full of memories and a closet full of supplies that would rival Office Max AND a Hallmark store. But now it is full…FULL… of wedding stuff. It has been transformed from “den” to “wedding central”. Things for rehearsal dinner decorations; things for wedding reception centerpieces; wedding gifts and wedding stuff. It’s at the entrance to our home and it’s a mess…a beautiful mess…a blessing mess.
So as I sit here at home with nowhere to go this Thanksgiving I am surrounded by the blessings of home. From family to pictures, to books, to pets, to food, to gifts, to the den “mess”…this home is a constant reminder of how the many things…MANY THINGS…I have to give thanks for this Thanksgiving. It is vivid reminder of how fortunate I am to count so many blessings…especially the blessings that begin at home.