Abundance

Yesterday was the final Sunday of the church year--Christ the King Sunday. It's one of those festivals I used to hate (because I didn't do my research) but now love because its the best kind of old school subversive. You can read a sermon I wrote a few years ago if you're curious.

This year, and many others but not all, the calendar has worked out such that Thanksgiving falls on the Thursday between church years. Yesterday, we said goodbye to a year of celebrations and lamentations; on Thursday, we'll declare our deep gratitude for our families, friends, communities, and nation; next Sunday, we'll begin the new year and the season of Advent, as we await the Christ child once more.

Poignant, I'd say.

Framing the transition from year to year around gratitude is what I'd do if I had it my way--this year, the calendar has done it for me. Thanks, Revised Common Lectionary and lunar whatever that placed Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of a five-Sunday November!

Looking back at the year and forward to the new centered in the communal giving of thanks, I am hopeful. I am hopeful that the remainder of 2014 and the transition into 2015 will be plentiful and abundant--and that I will be able to recognize where my life overflows, even if it seems mundane or disappointing in some ways on some days.

Our country's and our Church's attitudes of scarcity are self-fulfilling. Entering the year with an attitude of abundance will cause us to recognize our abundance and share in our abundance. I'm sure of it.

I have more of everything than I need, and I want to share it all with you.

Thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving! I have endless people and things for which to be thankful, as usual. I hope the same is true for you. It seems it's been a particularly long time since last Thanksgiving. I've come along way, miles and otherwise.

I am sincerely, eternally grateful for the fellow humans with which I share my life. My friends and family and colleagues and classmates, and people who sit in more than one of those categories, are everything to me. The blessing of being relationship is one I endeavor to never take for granted. I love you all for all that you are and all that I am because of you.

I am thankful that I have two homes -- two places I feel relieved to return to. Two communities that are happy to see me arrive and sorry to see me go. Two landscapes I long for. It's a blessing and a curse, though, as I am missing a significant portion of myself at any given time, as I am missing from one of my homes.

Today, I'm in Encinitas with my parents to celebrate Thanksgiving. My brother is in Michigan with his fiancé's family, Fletcher is in London, my cousins are with their in-laws, and some aunts are in the desert with their dad. It's our first Thanksgiving without Grammy. There are a lot fewer chairs at our Thanksgiving table than usual. Aren't we lucky to have so many people, all over the country and world, to love and celebrate with?

Yesterday, I got to sit in Rico's and devour a breakfast burrito with Nick, the closest friend I've had the longest -- thought it had been nearly two years since we'd done so. And last night, we all sat around his living room with beers and dice and underground rap (like we somehow always manage to get to) and I just reveled in the simultaneous novelty and normality of the feeling.

We live in a complicated world in which it's pretty easy to get wrapped up in how much better things could be, and we have a tendency to reserve our gratitude for momentous occasions and celebrations like Thanksgiving. But every year, I make a list of the things that I am grateful for on a daily basis -- or as often as they grace me with their presence. It's some parts silly and some parts not. You know me. I hope that you can take some moments today to reflect on the things for which you are everyday thankful, and then be mindful of that everyday-ness, every day. [You're welcome.] Here's my list:

Harry Potter (always manages to be first on the list)
hot tea
sunflowers
group text messages
karaoke
popcorn
glitter
Farkle
dirty chai lattes
grace
Instagram
group spiritual direction
Cinna & Gus & puppies in general
ecumenism
The Albatross
poetry
beautiful Jesuits
Jon Stewart
bobby pins
transatlantic snapchats
harmonies
books
handholding
neon
Café Leila
my best friends' mamas
bangles
graduate school
cookie dough
scarves

Two days late but still supes thankful, obvi.

I’m laughing out loud right now because this is my annual “thankful” post and the only thing I can think of is my dear friend Eric on his birthday two years ago saying “I AM SOOOO THANKFUL” as we walked home from “OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BAR” in North Berkeley. Memories to last a lifetime, let me tell you. And I am so thankful! For those friends and that neighborhood bar, absolutely. But also for many other things.

This year has been a lot of things. And next year is going to be a lot of things, too. And, I guess, hopefully every year is a lot of things. But this last and this next are part internship, part regular school, living in three cities, kind of bonkers nonsense. These last few months in particular, as we all began our internships, have been a time of incredible transition for me and for many of those I hold most dear. We have been pretty able to stay well-connected across the miles and time zones, and for this I am most certainly thankful.

I am ineffably thankful that the American people re-elected President Barack Obama. I am ineffably thankful that the policies of the second Obama Administration will move our many fights for equality forward.

I am thankful for my dear family, my visits with whom are getting to be few and far between. It is my great joy to spend holidays with my extended family and holidays plus regular life with my parents and brother and his boyfriend. Our giant family is so good at adding one more chair to the table and one more air mattress to the basement. At the risk of quoting Olive Garden, when you’re here, you’re family.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be here in Colorado, learning about living into this vocation from a supervisor who cares deeply for his people and for the future of the Church we call home.

And I would be remiss if I did not give a very loud, public thanks to all my dear friends across this country and world who are the number one reason that I can say each day is a great day to be alive. I miss each and every one of you each and every minute I am not with you. You bring me great joy. Oh, great joy.

And as is customary, the remainder of this post is a list of things for which I regularly give thanks—some serious, some not-as-serious.

Harry Potter (serious)

Chelsea Lately (not-as-serious)

Granny Smith apples (etc)

Zumba

Neon

Scarves

Jimmy Fallon

Shellac manicures

Spotify

The Obamas

Tanqueray and tonic

How I Met Your Mother

Sweatpants

Farkle

SNL Weekend Update’s “Girl You Wish You Never Started Talking to at a Party”

Instagram

Graduate school

Napa

Soy lattes

Abbrevs

Etsy

Boots

Jon Stewart

Glitter

Health insurance

Hot buns

The West Wing

Preschool chapel

DVR

Ruffles

Board games

Hashtags

Baseball

Voting