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This week’s Five Minute Friday writing prompt is: EXPECTATION
This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving. I was about to buy a turkey the week before the holiday when it was on sale at the grocery store, but my kids and husband all said, “Do we have to have turkey? We don’t really like it. We want lamb instead.” Having grown up in South Africa, turkey is not really their thing. Lamb, on the other hand, is a much more popular and enjoyed meat option.
I hesitated, as we were expecting guests for Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to disappoint them or break their usual tradition. I mean, would it even seem like Thanksgiving without a turkey?
I texted our friends who were planning to come over to make sure they liked lamb. I didn’t want them to just show up and be thrown off by the lack of turkey on the table.
They said lamb sounded great, so we went with it.
And you know what? It all turned out great. They said the lamb was delicious, my husband and kids were very happy, and we didn’t have half a turkey left over afterwards that nobody would want to finish.
Sometimes I’m afraid to break tradition or do things in a way I think others wouldn’t want or expect, because I don’t want to disappoint them. I don’t want to let them down. But doing things just because without a good reason isn’t always the answer, either.
Sometimes there’s freedom in breaking from the norm, the typical expectation, and following the requests of your people.
Even if it means no turkey for Thanksgiving.
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Psst . . . there’s still time to sign up for the Writing Accountability Group happening in January!
Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite on the word, EXPECTATION, below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment.
Having relatives over, we’ve always got a turkey for Thanksgiving. And they doubtless say the same. (Kidding, I think.)
To all who were so kind as to stop by my blog last week, I really am sorry for the formatting issues that made it unreadable. It’s fixed now.
And…expectation…sigh. Expectation is starting to hurt, and not just personally.
An expectation in the news
of civility abandoned;
anarchy is on the loose,
met by Let’s Go Brandon.
It’s hip to be a hater
and cut off former friends,
but think on soon or later
where this madness ends.
Christ cried ’bout Jerusalem,
He saw they’d have no peace;
this is now and that was then,
but if we do not cease
the pagan turn to hurt our brother
no stone will stand upon another.
I appreciate your experience. I had wanted lamb for our Thanksgiving, but my crew opted for a traditional turkey. Maybe for Christmas.