Eucharisteo

Made apple pies with Shati using our hands and a sickle knife.

Curled up in a plastic chair in the corner of the kitchen with my feet resting on the edge of the counter I sit reading One Thousand Gifts, nibbling on a piece of fresh coconut. Wafts of cinnamon and apple float past as Shati boils the two on the stove and Ben Howard plays in the background. Little brown hands and eyes peek around the corner to steal a glimpse of this white girl reading in the corner of the kitchen. I smile to the pages as I steal my own glances of their curiosity. A day of U.S. national thanks has come with the clock's reading. But to this girl who sits in the corner of the kitchen reading a book, it's just another day.

Another day where I teach the letters T, U, and V to kindergarten. Another day where I get to kick a soccer ball around the yard with the older boys. Another day where you find a crying child sitting on the ground. Scooping him up and wiping those tear stained cheeks, his body relaxes against mine.

At home this past year I was blessed to live with and around people who intentionally gave thanks for little everyday gifts. I witnessed the quiet change in their lives and as I left home and came to my new home here, I was determined to live out my life in the same way where everyday is Thanksgiving.

Four summers ago I worked in Big Lake's kitchen. Once a week Baker John would go around the little corner of the kitchen where we sat and asked us when we had hung out with Jesus in the past week. Now, when I go to bed each night and recount the small everyday blessings they seem much more significant than before and I can see through these simple gifts that Jesus was with me all day long.

Yes, today Americans at home and around the world are giving thanks on a preset calendar date, but I've learned God doesn't have a calendar. At least not one that looks like ours. And here in Bangladesh where I am and there where you are sitting with your computer, just inches away from you are wondrous, simple, mind blowing gifts for you and I to discover, name, and give thanks for. Everyday. Some days are harder to write down the thank you's than others, but that doesn't mean that there weren't any gifts given that day,I just wasn't opening my eyes enough to see them. Everyday is a thanksgiving day. A day for eucharisteo.

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world."

Sarah Ban Breathnach