Thankful For What Is

For those of you who know anything about Elizabeth, you know that she loves to have her favorite foods, that she is prone to food jags ( thank you to my mom for this inherited trait:) and she is hungry more than she is not.

So with that being said, Thursday this week, Elizabeth came home from a busy day like always.  She took her few minutes to relax and change, like always.  She told me she was hungry, like always.   Well since we had a long weekend off, courtesy of something our school likes to call “mid-winter break” I said “Hey, do you want to eat and watch T.V. as a treat?”  Well guess that answer to that one?

So I make her favorite dinner, spaghetti.  I bring it in with a nice salad, fruit and warm bread.  She thanks me, sits down, we say grace and I hug her and go to the other room.

I return in a while to see NOTHING touched.  NOTHING was eaten.  HMMMM, I thought What is going on?

Me: “Elizabeth are you sick? Does your stomach hurt?”

Her “No, I am fine.  Just not hungry tonight.”

Me “But you said you were hungry. Are you sure you are fine?”

Her ” I am NOT sick.”  Side bar here:  Elizabeth absolutely hates to be sick….I mean HATES to be sick.   So much so that once when she actually threw up in her room.  She told me ” Don’t worry about that, it is just a burp.”

So I was getting kind of concerned, then concerned turned to worry when she did not eat her snack later that evening.

I thought we should talk about this, so we did.

Turns out she was sad.

Sad about missing my dad who died almost three years ago.

Sad “that people go away”

Sad ” that things are so hard for me to do”

Sad “that Emily is not home tonight”   Emily is her beloved big-sister who moved away to medical school.

So we talked through ALOT of things.  She talked, I talked, she hugged me, I hugged her.

She looked a bit better.

The next day she woke up,  Looking a bit better, We talked more.

Elizabeth asked for breakfast…she ate it so quickly.  My heart was so very happy seeing her normal return.

We talked more that day and the next.  But I must say that until what you know and have are taken away, even for a day or so, you really aren’t as thankful for what is as we ought to be….I put myself on top of the list.

I am not sure the moral of this story, or what it means to you.  But to me, it is a reminder that what we have in our children are wonderful, beautiful people.  Made so uniquely, that when those things change in them, it is a bit unnerving.

I am thankful for what is…..

I wish you all a peaceful week.

Michele

 

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