042 - Thanks.

A measured newsletter for a day called "Thanksgiving"

Welcome back (or welcome)!

For nearly fifteen years, I’ve been writing at 300wordsaday.com. It’s a different blog, with a different purpose, and a somewhat overlapping readership.

When I asked Nancy if I could/should use the same post here as there for today, she said, “Yes!” And so I will.

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Three years ago, I told you the story about the man who said, “Have a good day,” I was visiting him one last time before he went home to be cared for by hospice. He died within a day or two.

We both knew that was happening. So, when he said, “Have a good day,” I struggled to respond. “You, too” felt odd. Anything else felt awkward.

I finally laughed. “I think the thing to say is, ‘Have some good in your day,’” I said. Those of us in the room smiled.

When I first wrote about this, it was Christmas 2020.

That was a hard time.

Here’s what I wrote then:

I’ve thought about that a lot (and him (and his family)) this month. We offer greetings that feel hard to receive. How can I have a happy thanksgiving with all these empty seats. How can I have a merry Christmas with the chaos and loss. The automatic greeting for some feels like an emotional assault, one last obligation we are unable to meet.

The underlying Christmas story is about God putting on a body and joining a cultural mess and working slowly and unexpectedly at every turn to bring the possibility of hope and peace and love and joy.

And so, I’m starting to look for ways to have good in a day, to have nice in a day, to have happy somewhere in thanksgiving, to have some merry in Christmas.

The other day I was in a similar situation. I told a family member about that greeting: “Have some good in your day.” The family member, by the hospital bed of her mom, said, “That made sense.”

And so, as I write for this Thanksgiving Day 2023, that’s my prayer for us. For colleagues that are working, for friends grieving friends, for families leaving empty chairs, for plans disrupted, for expectations that aren’t going to be fulfilled, there is this:

May you and I have some thanks in our day.

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And thank you for taking time to read this today. I’m grateful for this group of people joining me in the effort of “finding words in hard times.”

Writing helps me think. Readers help me write. And the results give support to the people around us. We’re in this together.

Thanks.

Jon and Nancy.

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Here’s me at the end of a 4-mile thanksgiving run this morning. The race starts at a university where I worked when I started to understand being a pastor. And it goes through a cemetery where I’ve been involved in a couple burials. It was a helpful and thoughtful start to the day.