Day 1: For Our Home Team
“Everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.
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Welcome, Dear Reader. So glad you are here. This begins our first day of 10 Days of Gratitude. I hope you find that giving up entitlement and giving thanks instead gives you a lighter load. A grounded heart. A joyful soul. Take a breath, open your heart and let's get grateful.
For Day 1, let’s start with a lay-up in case giving thanks feels rusty, creaky, stubborn. There are certainly seasons I have dug in my heals and called everything diseased. I have blamed everyone and every kind of thing about every sort of situation. And I have therefore stolen joy instead of given thanks.
Chin up, friend. There's a lot of joy deep down there. It's ours for the uncovering. Together.
Beginning with our Support System, our All-Ins, our Home Team (as Shauna Niequist puts it quoted above) should bring some sweetness to the soul.
I’m willing to bet we can name one other person. Most likely two or three and maybe upwards to five or six that are FOR us. For us in all the right ways. And aren’t we grateful? For the other ones who know our insecurities, our tears, our laughter, our grit and fight, our wins and losses. And still, yes STILL, they love us.
The first two-three people who popped into your mind may be next door or across the country, but either way, we are grateful. Take a few minutes and send a text, a message, or heck GET CRAZY and hunt down a stamp, write a little letter and stick it in the mail. And tell them how thankful you are for them.
Tell them you are thankful for their reality check. For their grace. For their hope. For their kick in the rear. Tell them how you love the time you laughed so hard you spit out your fish tacos. Tell them why your children call them "Uncle" when they aren't related to you. Tell them that they are precious to you. Tell them, specifically, what you see in them and why they are pure GIFT to you.
Our Home Teams are absolute gifts. Let's get grateful about that. The desire for meaningful connection to others is hard-wired into every soul. When we find those friends, those brothers and sisters, those gifts - then we find a treasure that is cause for celebration and thanksgiving. Let's toast to our Home Team!
God, thank you for my Home Team. For those who come in without knocking and sit with me on my floor. Who tell me it’s hard, it’s ridiculous, it’s over the top. Who give life to me simply by who they are and where we’ve been and what their grit and fight have been. Thank you for friendships that feel like siblings and love that feels safe and hilarious and easy. Thank you for those who are just so easy for us.
“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. ”