I Am Thankful for Nothing

Because Nothing is the Something I Need Right Now

Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday.  Togetherness and warmth around the table.  Long grocery lists, college football, crisp cool days, last minute trips to the market.  Kids home from college.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come to town.  Tables are set.  Turkeys are brined.  Leaves fall from the trees and crunch on the ground and we pour wine, scoop whip cream on the pumpkin pie and relish in the flurry of conversation and familial chaos.

Thanks to the pandemic, this year is different.  Grandma is staying home.  The college kids are back, but we are cautious with our invitations and affections (until we get the results from the Covid test they took on the way home from the airport.)  Sure there will be turkey, and sweet potatoes and 3 kinds of pie, but there will be more leftovers this year than ever before.   Thanksgiving is smaller and simpler as we huddle in our safe pods and toast to health, a new President and the end of 2020. 

This year, I am thankful for nothing.  That’s right, its been a year of nothing. No travel.  No parties.  No frenzied school and sports routines.  No movies.  No crowded restaurants or bars or concerts.  Social obligations have disappeared.  And in the absence of busyness and hustle and bustle, the beauty of what really matters has bubbled to the surface.  

Family.  Friends.  Food.  Time.  Long hikes and runs and bike rides.  Warm sunny days and rainy days and cold days.  I notice it all.  I notice The Nothing.  And in The Nothing, there is Everything.