Greetings web-friends and Happy post holidays!
I love the holidays and am also glad when it's time to get back into a routine after the excessive food. laziness and shopping! My birthday is January 2 so it's always been the day to go back to school, back to work and it's generally the end of all parties and celebrations! LOL!
Thanksgiving 2011 was an interesting and joyous occasion, as always! Perhaps more diverse than any previous holiday I've experienced in days gone by. With the variety in the crowd that graced our home throughout the day, we enjoyed parents, grandparents, children and children's children, siblings and their families and the special treat of my step-daughter and her family as well as some new friends from work who have recently come to work in the states. There was one couple from Tokyo and another colleague from Russia. We had a group of 30 altogether, kids included and of course food in ridiculous abundance!
Mack had everyone introduce themselves and Dad McBurney had the prayer, after telling a Thanksgiving joke about a little boy and a turkey. :) We visited into the late afternoon and the children all played together very well - there were 8 in all from 2-14 so that in itself was a blessing!
That experience and my work with our HR department has been a valuable tool in teaching me some life lessons, recently, with regard to myself and my newly acquired family.
Let me explain! Just as at work, I encounter "diversity" or differences in working with my colleagues due to various backgrounds, cultural influences and a variety of additional factors, I also find it so in my home! Recognizing and embracing the differences is taught as a must in the workplace but it can be a different matter in the home! When I realize that I have "biases" to work with that determine how I think and what approach I take to various encounters, I have to consider the inclusiveness piece to the puzzle or "embracing our differences!"
When I got married, I was all about this formula. Recognize and embrace the differences, negate our biases and be inclusive to all within our home. My husband's values and ideas merited equal importance to mine! I wanted to be "in the know" on all subjects relating to my new husband and his family, including talks with our kids, knowledge of each others family situations, etc. and it was going to be happy days including close relationships with my step-children and lunches and outings with my sisters in law as added "best friends" to the grand mix I already had in my life. (I had no shortage of girlfriends in my world and was so excited to add luncheons and shopping dates and girl secrets shared....) and as has been common in my life over my 47 years, I was disappointed yet again as the idealist always is when all did not happen exactly as I had envisioned! :-D
I also realized that I stumble on the "embracing the differences" piece in my home! LOL - it's more like "This is how I see it and if you see it that same way, we are good! Otherwise, let me help you correct your erroneous thinking!" :) There were some wonderful times in 2011 and some difficult ones but one thing is clear. I'm learning so much day by day!
One of my goals for 2012 is to practice this diversity/biases/inclusiveness relationship in our home and to lower my expectations of people and situations in which the outcome depends on more than just me! I also want to be kinder to myself. I am a person with many lofty goals and disciplines in my life and when I don't reach the pinnacle of success at the appointed (by me) time, I tend to be hard on myself. I want to walk in grace this year and to do all that I can with what I've been given and in those things I cannot control, they must be relegated to my "God box." I want to take it to him and leave it there for his perfect resolution and timing according to his great purpose!
Happy New Year, girlfriends! Let's make it one full of grace and truth!
