You get what you need

When my children were little and something didn't go their way, I sang to them. They got to where they didn't like my little song, but it was somthing I think they needed to hear, so I continued to sing it. It held a good message for children and adults alike.

You see, when I heard a whiney "But I dont waaaannnnt to!" I would sing a Rolling Stones song, "You can't always get what you want...." I usually prefaced the singing with saying something along the lines of 'You know what my friend, Mick Jagger says...." On occasion, not often, they would laugh and sing along with me.

One time, when his 1st grade Sunday School teacher told the class something she didn't want them to do, my son piped up and told her, "My mom's friend, Mick Jagger, says you can't always get what you want." God love that sweet lady, she came and asked me if I really knew Mick Jagger. You gotta love that! I said of course not!

Then she wanted to know why I would refer to him as my friend when he really wasn't. She was quite a literalist. I told her that it was a joke. "Oh, I see...but it isn't funny," was her reply. Maybe not, but that conversation certainly was.

Every now and then, my words/songs come back to bit me in the behind.

This week is one of those times. Remember my plans to spend Thanksgiving at Cocoa Beach with Rocket Man? I could quote another icon of my youth, "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans!" Life has barged into my plans and I am NOT going to spend Thanksgiving on the beach, eating a turkey sandwich.

In fact, I'm not actually sure where I'll be on Thanksgiving. Maybe in a hotel in Macon, Georgia. Rocket Man had a death in his family. His Uncle Jerry died late last week after battling some severe health issues for a long time. I have spent my morning rearranging flights, making hotel reservations, cancelling hotel reservations, etc. etc. etc. so that we can leave first thing in the morning and fly to Atlanta. From there, we will rent a car and drive to Macon for a mid-afternoon Memorial service. After that...who knows?

So, Jamie and Annie...this one is in honor of all the times I sang it to you...
You can't always get what you want...you try sometimes, but you get what you need.

In this case, Rocket Man needs to be with his family, and I need to be where Rocket Man is. Its a good thing I learned a long time ago that holidays are not about where you are or with whom you eat...or even what you eat.

Holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas are about what you hold in your heart.

This will be a wonderful thanksgiving, because we have been so blessed, and we truly are grateful! God's blessings are so bountiful! I'm afraid that no mater how diligently I try to live with an attitude of thankfulness, I often disregard things that I ought to be mindful of as I scurry about doing the things that I do.

This day...this Monday before Thanksgiving...I am thankful that I spent a good deal of the day yesterday walking the beach, picking up seashells and watching the sand pipers. I'm thankful for the pelicans we saw on the pier and the quiet, often amusing conversation that began when we woke up and continued until after we saw a rocket launch from our hotel balcony. I am thankful for a husband who is concerned about my health and wellbeing, and who is very sorry to have to change our plans. I am equally grateful for the kind of husband to whom family is very important and whose intergrity is such that he has forgiven the things that have gone before and lives in the present.

So, no Turkey on the Beach for Mollianne and Rocket Man. But it really is okay.
It did sound fun, though, didn't it?