Thankful for Thanksgiving

Jeff did the cooking. The boys and I cleaned. The day before Thanksgiving we decorated the house with Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations. I have enough Christmas stuff to decorate 2 or 3 houses, but I used the decorations sparingly. I needed it to feel like "the holidays," but I didn't want to suffocate Jeff. The results were lovely. 

Thanksgiving this year was exactly what I needed to get out of the doldrums. The presidential election on November 7 really threw me into a tailspin. I was positive that Romney would win. I was positive we'd get out of this economic quagmire, but now we're further into it. So, Greece and Spain weren't good enough examples..... Twenty-five million people unemployed wasn't enough.... $16 trillion dollars in debt wasn't enough..... I should have seen it coming -- with half of the country or more booing at God, it's no wonder Obama was reelected. 

A quote from a Czechoslovakian newspaper summed it up for me: “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.” -Prager Zeitung

I read article after article proclaiming Onward Christian Soldiers, but I didn't feel it. I shut everything out and consumed myself with reading books. But, that finally wore me out too. {I have so many book reviews to write, but haven't had the motivation to write them.}

The day before Thanksgiving, I came across an article about singing nuns. It's a cloistered convent - the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles - that have produced a CD called Advent at Ephesus. http://benedictinesofmary.org/ From their website, "every Benedictine of Mary vows to detach herself from the ways of the world, continually turning to the ways of her Redeemer." And, I realized "That's it!" Detach from the ways of the world. So, I'm turning off all the mental noise in my head. It's time to focus on my faith, family & friends.

So, I'm very thankful for this Thanksgiving. It gave me the chance to sit back, enjoy family, and just breathe.