25 Nov Enough
“That’s enough!” Ella exclaimed. Emma was adding drops of vanilla extract to a bowl of cookie batter. Gently, Ella covered Emma’s hand with her own and tipped the bottle of vanilla upward.
It’s the secret to our family’s sugar cookie recipe – an extra bit of vanilla. Through many generations, each young cookie baker’s hands have learned, through the patient guidance of an older hand on their own, when there’s enough.
The girls and I are baking the sugar cookies as part of our Thanksgiving tradition. We will cut them out in shapes of turkeys and leaves and decorate them together. This tradition will stay the same. Many of our other traditions will look different this year because of the pandemic.
Thanksgiving is a day to be grateful for what we have. Yet in many ways, our plan for Thanksgiving this year doesn’t feel like enough to me.
Enough is a funny thing. It isn’t always defined by an amount, like drops of vanilla in the cookie batter. It’s related to what you have, what you’re used to and how you choose to see the world.
For many of us, this Thanksgiving feels lacking because we’ve defined enough by what Thanksgiving used to be. If yours was like mine, it meant a day full of family and friends, hugs, closeness, togetherness, shared food and laughs.
Today, practicing gratitude challenges us to think about what enough can be rather than what it used to be. We can fully take in what we have and allow it to be enough.
Wishing you a day filled with enough.