I was not planning to write a post today but as friends and co-workers sent me texts and well wishes starting at 7 AM this morning and continuing throughout the day I realized maybe I did need to write a Thanksgiving post not necessarily for me or Christian but more to re-affirm to readers of Magnolia Son that we all have things to be thankful for….. yes, even me.
Riding home from the hospital this afternoon I was thinking of all the things I have to be thankful for and they were too many to count. I could tell you about having the best grandparents anyone could ever ask for. About growing up being loved unconditionally by a quiet man who I called Papa. I can’t remember a harsh word he ever said to me. He was there to build science projects, build chicken coops and foster a budding entrepreneurial spirit in me. A man who would set the bar high for all men in my life.
I could tell you about a devoted wife, mother and grandmother who taught me about honor in traditions, the importance of faith and being true to yourself. She recently turned 102 years old and we all call her Mawmaw. She has always been there at ballgames, birthdays and every other milestone in my life including the death of my child. At 101 years old insisting on being at the funeral home “because I know you need me there”. Giving me strength and words of faith and wisdom that at times was hard to understand but appreciated all the same. But also sharing happy times too numerous to even remember if it were not for pictures of family events demonstrating a happy childhood that later was replicated in my own children. Pictures of smiling faces, family fun, close bonds with cousins, and vacations long forgotten. Seeing their happiness as children filling my heart not with thankfulness but with gratitude that they experienced that happy and peaceful period of time in their young little lives.
I could tell you about friends who don’t visit or pry not because they don’t care but because they do. Knowing that “my way” is to quietly grieve, quietly celebrate… quietly live. I could tell you about siblings who have stood by decisions made they did not always understand or agree with but who have never questioned and just asked “What do you need?” These same siblings sharing memories of childhoods filled with basketball games, beach vacations, family birthdays and holidays. These same siblings sharing a mother who would set the standard for grace and southern hospitality. A mother brought up to put your husband and children before your own wants and needs. A mother who rarely complained, who rarely said an unkind word about anyone, a mother whose last concern was that her children and grandchildren carry on the close family bond she herself had forged.
I could tell you about my three children (plus one) who have given me the happiest moments of my life. Children who are perfectly for “me”. Two children challenging me to live life more, work less – those same two looking for every rule to break and road less traveled to explore. One child more like me; quietly living his life, but so much more than me with his ability to accept everyone for who they are not expecting change….just accepting. And the plus one we have, well we all are thankful for his brutal honesty, his simple statements that are so insightful and the laughter he brings to a home that is short of that these days.
And because this is Magnolia Son’s site I would have to tell you how thankful I am for the life Christian was able to lead the 21 years he was given. He packed a lot of living in those 21 years. He was blessed with great friends, a first love, “epic” parties by all accounts, and plenty of adventures along the way. He never lived small. What more could you ask from life except for more of it.
And I am especially thankful for the outpouring of support from so many people. Christian would be amazed at what people have done to support him and this charity. By the end of the year we will have shirts in three different stores which may seem small to some but…
to the Magnolia Son family it is HUGE!!
I am so very thankful for those three stores, their management/ownership who decided we were a worthy cause and the many people who have purchased shirts or given a donation to help fund the Magnolia Son mission – to help others and to keep Christian’s memory living on for me and everyone who loved him.
Even though 2014 has been a very difficult year for me and my family I also know there are those who have suffered much more than we have. I know there is always someone who has a story worse than your own. There are people who have suffered worse injustices than Christian or I could imagine. So I am thankful for what I have today and for the patience God has given me to wait out the injustices that have been committed against those that are mine…….
I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful – for all of it.