Okay, so I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this…

After surviving my accident, could I be any more thankful?

Fake Catholic School Girl

I made it a habit to go to church every Thanksgiving Day beginning the year of my accident, 2010. Before then, I was never part of a religious background mainly because my family was not whatsoever.

However, funny enough, my parents chose to put their kids in Catholic schools. Reason being – better upbringing. Supposedly. This is debatable nowadays. But moving on…

That said; church mass wasn’t totally foreign to me.

Since I never attended church with my family, I associated church as more of a school activity than anything else. Obviously I took religion courses, but it was still in a school setting. And during those long (boring) school masses, I never took away any spoken message, belief, or whatnot for life outside of school. No breakthrough epiphany overpowering my body and mind.

Church was basically a chore – show up wearing the right colored skirt and beret the first Friday of each month, and just follow along with the singing.

Becoming

It took almost getting killed to become a churchgoer, but more exact, to become a believer.

Now, to be clear and honest, I’m a believer… a believer in who, what, why, where, when? It’s not concrete or tangible for me, and it frankly doesn’t make a difference. All I know is that I’ve become a believer after the accident.

Attending church isn’t something I do regularly. It’s sporadic and not really based on any particular event – just whenever I want to believe with a group of believers and feel part of a community.

But on Thanksgiving Day, I feel like it’s my honorable duty to formally say thanks for my life, and a church just so happens to be the place to do that for me. Don’t misunderstand though, I do this outside of church too, but Thanksgiving is a solid day for a chance to take it to another level, if you know what I mean.

During this time, I like to remember what happened – all the terrorizing details, the “what ifs,” and what I’ve lost. I end up taking all this in and receiving a message for the now and the future. The message and what I get out of this sort of “Buddha Zen,” is different each time.

But I can say it always feels refreshing and gratifying, like a rejuvenating spa day for the mind. More profoundly, I always get an empowering reminder that everything is going to be okay. And dare I be cheesy – that life is a beautiful mess, all meant to be.

On Top of That…

For the rest of Thanksgiving Day, I get to spend it with my loved ones. This day is an entire celebration of life, and it seriously wouldn’t be without almost losing my life on April 24, 2010. How crazy is that?!

For these reasons, I like to give back on this day to those less fortunate. This has always been constant since I was a child, but more than ever does it also have a new heighten meaning now.

I’m happily thankful for Thanksgiving Day… and of course the action to feast upon pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes!

xo, CHU