A Thursday in Scotland

Reflections on my second Thanksgiving across the pond

Before I dive in here, just a quick note that I’m sharing my *free* Anchor in Advent pdf again this year. You can find it here — please feel free to share this link or the pdf with anyone who might enjoy a gentle journey of slowing down, tuning in with the body, and tending to the soul :) I’d be honored to have you join me in these pages!

Person after person has asked me over the last week or so, What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Last year, we had friends over and enjoyed pumpkin and pecan desserts, searching for scraps of home while still figuring out our footing here by the sea.

This year, something was different.

We had wanted to host a similar dessert night, we enjoyed it last year and thought we’d made a little tradition out of it. But, our calendars didn’t have feasible space.

I had two dance performances this week (along with rehearsals!), Elijah had pickleball, and we also had relaxing evenings planned to watch movies and play games with friends. When would we squeeze in some sweet treats to try and savor a slice of being home?

It wasn’t until it was actually Thursday—a day that I kept joking with family and friends was just a Thursday in Scotland—that I realized what had changed: our root system is settled differently than last year.

Last fall, I kept using the imagery of feeling like a propagated plant who was ripped out of the ground, feeling the pain of raw, exposed roots. And while I was the one who said yes to a PhD in Scotland, did the propagating, and was mesmerized that I got to move to this marvelous place, that didn’t change the fact that I was gutturally grieving the home I had just left. Even if I liked the place I was propagated to, that didn’t mean my roots were yet soothed and secure in this new place.

So, last year, Thanksgiving was not just a Thursday in Scotland. It was a day when my body was painfully aware that I was still in the thick of the both-and of this transition.

Now, I don’t think life here will ever not include this both-and tension. Still, that tension was held differently for me this year.

This year, it was a Thursday in Scotland in a life that is anchored and rooted in this place, a Thursday when I kept forgetting it was Thanksgiving in the US, and instead, was simply living my life here, a place where it was simply a Thursday. And while I’m not sure how many Thursdays like this I’ll have on this side of the Atlantic, I know that on this one, I was so grateful to viscerally feel the difference from last year, to smile and savor how I’ve been able to sink into this place over these months, to be present enjoying this wild place that surrounds me in this season.

And also, I was grateful for a copy of my mother’s pecan pie recipe that I’ve adapted to my gluten free and many other dietary needs so that at the end of a long Thursday in this place that is currently home, I could sink my teeth into a different dimension of home, holding both together in body, creating something, and enjoying something, new.

A sunrise walk to school along the sea :)