Sunday, October 14, 2012

On Remembering (Part 2)


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.