Might As Well Face It

My sister Sheri and I made our annual trip to the beach this Thanksgiving. It's the best time of year for me to go when the autumn sun is not so intense and there is the least amount of glare off my pale skin. Even in the Fall, I have to slather up in a white pasty mask of 60 spf sunscreen just to keep from blistering my ivory complexion. Now when I get a look (some might call it an incredulous stare), I can tell people are trying to sort out why an Irish-looking gal is wearing that Japanese Kabuki makeup…like some mime at the beach. Might as well face it, I'm not quite the bathing beauty I see in the magazines.

Sheri and I made our traditional chicken & dressing casserole for the big day, along with green beans, fruit salad, cranberry sauce and hot rolls. Way too much food for two people, but what's a girl gonna do? After all, Thanksgiving only comes once a year and I measure my gratitude by the pound. As I loaded up my plate I made my first helping STUPID high. I just looked at my sister and said, “Might as well face it” and I put the amount on my plate that I was really going to eat. Yep, I actually ate it all and then went back for more, repeating my new catch phrase with each course like a disclaimer. Stupid high extra dressing: Might as well face it. Stupid high dessert: Might as well face it. Stupid high coffee: Might as well face it. Time for a nap, might as well take that stuffed face to the pillow for awhile.

When I woke up, I decided I might as well NOT face the fact that the clothes I was wearing before the nap now no longer fit. Since it was Thanksgiving, I gave special thanks for the man who invented elastic. I thought I could take my Kabuki self to the beach and walk it off…well maybe if I walked for 16 hours..in a sauna belt: I'm not sure if my sister could even have faced that.

So, is there a spiritual message in all this stuffing and dressing? I’ll try to serve one up. Like how often I fill my plate stupid high with things I don’t really need and drown in the excess. How often I load heaven up more with prayers of help than with words of thanksgiving. Might as well face it, the Lord is always faithful to give me what I need when I need it, and in my experience, not much before then either. He saves me from myself and how I am thankful for that. Well, that and elastic.