Dear Friends,
Late emails are what happen when I have to deal with the stuff of real life, not the stuff of the page. And that’s not to say I don’t love writing you all here. But this work is an outgrowth of my in-person ministry. And this week, my in-person ministry involved a lot of transition work with a new interim priest and prepping bundles of activities and notes for the children and families of my parish.
So, what do you send to kids, to families in the midst of a pandemic, as we stand at the cusp of a new liturgical season? My hope was first to counter the colonialist content of Thanksgiving with a more grounded sense of gratitude, and giving back, and without completely undoing everything kids living well outside the space of normal know. That includes opportunities for prayer - with hand turkeys!
Okay, no turkeys here, but any time you have a hand outline, you have a chance for hand turkeys. And some things are just fun.
What else is on the agenda this week? Despite growing up in a religious family, we didn’t regularly say grace - but I loved that we did on Thanksgiving. The annual challenge, though, was deciding who would be tasked with saying it.
Some years it was easy. When one of the cousins was young, you could often coax them into saying whatever grace they said at school; my sisters and I all went to a Lutheran preschool, my maternal cousins to Catholic ones. For some time, a devoutly Catholic cousin would say an intimidatingly intense version. But most year, grace was simple. And, at church, when we shared snacks, we sang a variety of grace tunes - Addams Family grace was a favorite. In keeping with the seasons, though, I chose to share the Johnny Appleseed grace I sometimes sing with kids with our families in this post. I haven’t had a chance to record my own, but you can enjoy this charming version from some Christian camp leaders that I found on YouTube -
I’ll be in a more timely state next week, but for now, know I’m thinking of you all. As virus number rise, I hope you are well. I hope you can find room for gratitude in the smallest things. Me? I’m grateful for my house full of kittens, for fresh sourdough in the oven, for the pot of coffee I’m getting ready to put on.
I grew up in a family that perhaps didn’t say the above - Gratitude turns what we have into enough - very often, but it was clearly the underlying message in all things. This year, even in the smallest moments, let gratitude turn it into enough.
Blessings,
A. Bird