Thankful For Food

Throughout the month of November I have enjoyed seeing people post what they are thankful for. We are all truly blessed and it is encouraging  to take the time to reflect. This year the thing I am most thankful for is food. That's it. Simply food. Sure I give thanks at meals, but somehow over time I forgot to BE thankful for food. This year that changed.

I frequently find myself reflecting back over the past year during the holidays.  How far have we come this year? How much have we grown? I found myself full of mixed emotions as this holiday approached. The last year has been full of both blessings and trials of our family. We have suffered unbelievable heartache and we have seen life long dreams come true.  It is almost too much to comprehend that our lives have changed so much.

One of those changes has been to switch to an entirely allergy free, gluten free diet.  Now that's a major change! It hasn't been achieved without sweat and tears.  In fact, there have been a lot of both sweat and tears. We thought this would be a huge challenge for our son, but in truth it has been a journey for all of us.  As we worked to clean up his diet, we found that the rest of us benefitted in different ways.  We each identified foods that had been irritating us. The irritation had always been there, but on the SAD (Standard America Diet) it was impossible to identify the culprits.

We all feel better, but I have spent a lot of time focusing on what we can't eat. Reading labels, scraping meals together out of an odd assortment of foods, checking, double checking every dish we eat. Just trying to figure out how to get enough calories in these growing bodies. Learning, making mistakes, relearning everything. I was in survival mode and, as so often happens when we are in survival mode, I lost sight of the big picture.  I lost sight of all the food we can eat.  And I forgot to be thankful.

That's why I needed the ritual of Thanksgiving. Of course, there was no way the meal would look exactly like past years. My family's tradition of having "Grandma's Noodles” with our gravy was out of the question (both gluten and eggs!). In the weeks before the feast, I practiced each dish we could have individually.  I also asked my son to choose a food to add to our menu. He chose sautéed snap peas.  Unusual I'll admit, but it added a bright splash of green to the table.

        We cooked side dishes all day long on Wednesday.  Come Thursday morning, the turkey was still a little icy, so dinner was later than I planned. But what really mattered, the crux of everything I've labored over all summer, was that we ate a beautiful meal, together. We laughed and told stories. We ate food that was healthy and allergy free.  We were blessed by being thankful.

And that is why I am thankful for food.