Tales of a Traveling Teusink: Thankful.

Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday to reflect on after living overseas. As I sit on my couch, waiting for the tea kettle to boil water for some chai (that’s festive, right?), I’ve found myself thinking back over a lifetime of Thanksgivings. Allow me to let you walk down my memory lane for a moment as I reminisce…

My first memories of Thanksgiving are from when we lived in Western Washington. I’m sure we celebrated it in Rwanda when I was smaller, but my first memory of the holiday has me at 8 or 9 years old. My parents would wake up and cook. By the time my eyes opened, the turkey would be in the oven and the first round of dishes would be ready to go in the dishwasher. (I don’t know how they got all of that done so quickly…even now I’m pretty sure they had some sort of a time-turner!) Sometime mid-morning, my dad and one of us kids (got to have 2 people for the HOV lane to be an option in King County) would go and get my Uncle Steve. It would just be the four of us and him at the table if my memory is right. It was perfect. After our mid-afternoon feast, we would all take naps. At least, that was the idea. Uncle Steve would nap on the couch while we watched Andy Griffith episodes, and that meant his wheelchair was available for Jonathan and I to whisk around our driveway in. Thinking back on it, that was a most excellent way to get us out of the house while the adults slept. Well played, parental units…well played.

I’m sure we celebrated Thanksgiving when we lived in Ethiopia, but I don’t remember it as clearly as those years that we lived in Kent. Once I went to boarding school, Thanksgiving wasn’t event spent at home. I suppose I should feel sad about that, and I do in a way because we had traditions that I still can’t imagine not having the memories of, but sometime in there I think the Lord did something in my heart that I didn’t have a clue about. He gave me a release from traditions and societal constructs that, without which, would have made it impossible for me to survive holidays for the next decade without tears and sorrow. He allowed me to see that it wasn’t about location or situation, but attitude.

Which leads me to Thanksgivings in college. When I think of the holiday, I think of driving for hours in a minivan packed with my friends from Kenya. I think of Turkey Trots, sleeping wherever there is a flat surface, and feasts at the homes of strangers. I think of Christmas lights and cold walks, of BB guns being shot at each other for the sake of initiation, of hours of intense card games, and of spoons thrown into snow. My traditions are totally not traditional and non-repeatable. For four years, we met in small towns in Illinois or West Virginia and made our home with friends that are and forever will be family.

After college, Thanksgiving meant time with extended family in the Northwest and memories that I will cherish with sweet nieces and tofurkey leftovers, but those memories don’t settle in my mind like those days in college.

Now, Thanksgiving is a day of work and an incredible feast put on by our Parent-Teacher Organization with food from around the world and so many smiles and hugs from the moms of my precious students. We have staff feast and time together on Wednesday night, and I’ll celebrate with other friends over the weekend, but it’s more about an attitude of gratitude then the turkey or the after-meal food-coma.

Today, I came home from school and took a two-hour nap. I can’t necessarily blame it on a food-coma, but for the sake of tradition I might as well.

All that said, I’m thankful. I’m thankful for where I live and where I’ve been. I’m thankful for friends spread far and near that I cherish. I’m thankful for my students and their families and the incredible blessing that it is to be a part of their lives.

I’m also thankful for you, whoever you are and whatever you’re up to this holiday. I’m thankful that our lives have intersected, maybe just for a few moments or for a majority of my 28 years. Thank you for reading to the end this reflection of a heart in multiple places and times.

Whatever you’re up to this holiday, I pray that you and your traditions (or lack there of) would cause you to take a moment to sit back and be thankful.