Expect the unexpected
More often than not, Thanksgiving has been an exciting holiday. It doesn’t happen every year, but I have come to expect the unexpected during this week.
In 1993, after finishing a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, I found myself curled up on the dining room floor in incredible pain. Despite wanting the stomach ache to be the result of overeating, it wasn’t. My appendix was surgically removed the following night.
A few years later, several members of my family caught a horrible illness during Thanksgiving. I spent the weekend in my bed or in the bathroom across the hall—where everything on the inside of my body was trying to be on the outside. I returned to college at the end of that experience weak, tired, and 10 pounds lighter.
Several years ago I spent Thanksgiving Day in California with my in-laws. I was having labor pains the entire day. Although my due date was over three weeks away, my water broke early Friday morning, and Julie was born.
The next year, Brian and I made the trek from California to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with my family. On Friday, my dad stood up from the table where we had been eating, tripped, and fell. He hit hard. My brothers loaded him into the car and drove him from the cabin to the hospital, where he had surgery to fix his broken hip.
One Thanksgiving morning, I went to preheat my oven to cook the turkey, and it was broken. No matter what I tried, I wouldn’t turn on.
This week, on Sunday, Brian was warming some food in the microwave, and the inside lit up like a firework. After some searching on the internet, I thought it may be a simple fix. Nope. The microwave was toast. Now, I don’t cook a turkey in the microwave, but it still gets used A LOT when preparing Thanksgiving dinner. A little panicked, I drove to Home Depot on Monday and hoped for a miracle. The microwave I needed wasn’t in stock. In fact, the man helping me checked a bunch of stores, and the soonest I could get a new microwave was Saturday. Saturday! He recommended an appliance store nearby, and I was cautiously hopeful as I walked through the door. Carrying my trim kit in hand, I told them about my unsalvagable microwave and the model number I needed. They had one! Actually, they had several in stock and ready to go. I got the new microwave and the updated trim kit and drove home.
I installed the microwave fairly easily. Then I grabbed the trim kit…and it wouldn’t fit. The opening was too small. It didn’t look pretty, but I did have a working microwave. Unbelievably, a dear friend who is also a contractor, came over yesterday, widened the opening, installed the trim kit, and left treats for my kids.
So now, I do anticipate a little excitement around Thanksgiving. Although I would love to control everything and have a “perfect” holiday, that’s never what happens. I expect the unexpected. Some things that happen are a bit traumatic, and others are inconvenient, but having this expectation helps me let go of perfectionistic ideals and feel gratitude instead.
I was so grateful for the surgeons who took out my appendix and relieved that pain. I was grateful that I lost weight, even though I had to be really sick to do it.😜 I was grateful that Julie came so early and was healthy. I was grateful I was with my family when my dad broke his hip, and that we could visit him in the hospital before driving home. I was so grateful for a handyman who came and fixed my oven on Thanksgiving Day! And I’m feeling so grateful for an appliance store that carried the microwave I needed, answered all my questions, and finally for a friend who installed the thing and made it look great.
Life is never perfect. Things don’t turn out the way we plan. However, you can choose to feel gratitude, even for the things that you weren’t expecting.
Expect the unexpected.
Happy Thanksgiving!
