We're weirdos & I like it

As you heard the other day from Bird, we had "big plans" for Thanksgiving this year. 2010 seems to be one of those years, though, in which we seem to perpetually need to just go with the flow. 

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving my grandfather was airlifted to UVA Medical Center with bleeding on the brain, and we nervously anticipated his surgery and a potential loss to our family. Amazingly, he was able to pull through the ordeal without surgery and to the best of my knowledge was sent home on Friday in stable condition! God has been so merciful to him. This man has survived more health crises than anyone I know in his almost 90 years, and we are thankful to have him with us for a while longer.

So trips to the hospital and being "on-call" took up much of our scheduled "playtime." As that situation settled, I went ahead and prepared our Thanksgiving meal as usual, and we enjoyed it quietly together - just me, my husband & our children. Since then, we've gotten some cleaning done and spent time reading and relaxing, and really to many people our Thanksgiving holiday would have seemed very dull. It's one of the rare years that no one has come for supper - we virtually always have some sub-set of friends or family in our home with us. Thanksgiving dinner was in so many ways no different than our usual dinners together. Relatively ordinary.

But then, even without the buzz and bustle of visitors and the large amounts of "fun activities," I see something extraordinary in our home for which I am very grateful. I know it sounds weird - maybe even a little crazy - but we actually seem to like each other. Don't get me wrong - we all have our moments and little tiffs. Yet in this world of Disney promising that watching one of their movies together fosters a closer family - and parents using those same movies as babysitters* - there are actually families who can be in the same house together for extended periods of time without a working television and not only refrain from murdering one another but actually enjoy one-another's company . There are actually families who don't wear a molded plastic smile in each other's presence, hiding the dislike, mockery, disdain, and slander beneath - but rather demonstrate genuineness and honesty toward one another as well as a genuine care and concern for the other. Sure, we may not agree on everything, but we love each other anyway. And we're not afraid to address disagreements directly and honestly. 

We may be one of the few households of such weirdos in our family tree - but I am certain that we are not the only weirdos out there!

As we sat around the dinner table, wrapping up our fall leaf project by piling the leaves on the table and having Daddy read them all aloud, I was so touched by that reality. We're weirdos, and I like it! God has blessed us exceedingly and abundantly - not the least of those blessings being each other. Regardless of circumstances, we have so much to be thankful for.

Just an aside: if you're stuck in the world's mold of "family," but long for genuineness in your relationships, it's never too late to become a weirdo yourself. It's part of that whole Golden Rule thing...which starts with you. God can make a weirdo out of anyone.

*Just a little caveat here: I am in no way an anti-TV Nazi. Nor am I anti-Disney. I don't think owning a TV is sin, nor watching something produced by Disney. I am simply referring a particular phenomenon in our country, and the "Disney brings the family together" commercials that precede the movie on each DVD nowadays. We own a TV - more than one in fact - and we do selectively watch things together. I mentioned the "Disney Phenomenon" only because it is such a recognizable symptom of the breakdown of the family in America. That's it. Please don't read more into it than that.