I've been wanting to mark this season.
I've been wanting to remember. I've had a lot of ideas. One idea, my
second favorite, is to get a tattoo. The tattoo would say,
“eucharisteo.” (If you haven't read Ann Voskamp's book One
Thousand Gifts to know what this
word means, I have this to say to you: why are you reading this
junk? Go buy that book immediately).
I had
the idea that I would write about it. Each of those painful moments
as those days return, like the Stations of the Cross, except, this would be the
Stations of the
Being-Laid-Off-Unexpectedly-And-Somewhat-Shadily-Thereby-Losing-Your-Livelihood-And-The-People-Who-Had-Become-Your-Family.
…Or something like that. Station One, under this idea was called,
“So The Five of Them Ate A Lot of Jello Anyway.” None of this was
quite capturing the spirit of what I had envisioned.
I
thought about covering all four walls of my art room with paper and
drawing it all. All the images. Writing all the words. Copying all
the lyrics. Quoting all the books.
I
spent a long time planning a worship service of some sort. I could
invite the people we love and who loved us so well. We could sing the
songs. We could all tell the stories. We could give thanks and break
bread and be together and cry and celebrate. This was my favorite
until I realized that this would be happening, in pieces, for the
rest of our lives. No need to rush it. No need to use all the good
stuff at once. No need to harvest anything before it's ready.
And
so, here, is my number one favorite idea. I'm going to give thanks.
Not just a tattoo of thanksgiving and grace and joy, but actual
thanksgiving and grace and joy.
I'm
writing letters.
I am
writing letters this year to say thank you to the million people who
loved us. Who let God use them to hold us and heal us and encourage
us and support us. And I'm going to tell them the good story that they were part of. I'm not sending Christmas cards this year, I'm
sending Thanksgiving cards. Eucharisteo cards! (READ THAT BOOK).
...and then I'm getting a tattoo. ...probably.
