When Gratitude Interrupts

Last week, everything fell apart. Marilee got Covid, which came with a fever approaching 105. The car broke down and needed to be taken in for a two-day repair an hour away with no loaner car available. We had a school delay. It was slushy and wet outside. Oh, and it was also Marilee’s birthday. And Peter’s birthday. And we were supposed to be going away with extended family for a weekend I had been responsible for planning for the past six months. 

So I didn’t get any work done and I worried and worried about Marilee and spun around and around in my head about the future and how I will never get anything done if the weather and the appliances and the children always need my attention.

And then Marilee got better. And I got the car back. And we drove up to Lake Placid and met up with my mom, and one of my sisters and her family, and Peter’s brother and his family. And I remembered all sorts of reasons to be thankful.

Snowshoeing in fresh powder.Driving through a valley with walls of snow and ice towering overhead.Watching Penny take care of her two-year-old cousin Cora.Celebrating Marilee’s birthday with lemon cupcakes her brother baked.Starting a good book. (Mary Louise Kelly’s It. Goes. So. Fast. )Three generations working on a one-thousand piece puzzle together.Listening to my sister and sister-in-law talk about their lives. Watching William ice skate for the first time in years. Introducing our cousins to Scattergories.Sleeping late. Seeing the world through the eyes of a two-year-old. 

My ordinary life will always have the frustrating interruptions of illness and weather and broken things. But this weekend was a reminder that it could also have the delightful interruptions of wonder and beauty and joy.

group of women and girls wearing coats and winter hats and smiling for a selfie in the woods two guys ice skating on a lake in front of mountains group of snow boarders smiling for a selfie; they are all wearing goggles pushed up on their foreheads snowboarders resting in the snow at the bottom of mountain snowboarders in the distance with a mountain in front of them Peter and young niece sit in a chair reading a kids' book a plate full of lemon cupcakes (each one has a candle) is being lowered to the table in front of the birthday teenager Peter, Penny, and Penny's uncle play Backgammon in a living room group of snowboarders pose with a snowy valley stretching behind them three generations of a family lean over a table putting together a puzzle Penny and her little niece play Backgammon group of snowboarders in a ski lift a person snowshoes away from the camera on a path through the forest

MORE WITH AMY JULIA:

It’s Always Too Much | Four Thousand WeeksRetreating and ReimaginingRecap of Holiday Fun

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Published on February 07, 2024 23:36
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