Easily Excitable

Look, I don’t want to brag, but God gave me a few skills in life, such as the ability to speed read and comprehend with 55% accuracy, the intestinal fortitude to eat raw veggies with minimal repercussions, and the instinct to know which of my 9th graders are most trouble when they’re most silent.

What he did not give me, however, along with a filter on my mouth and the ability to cook eggplant, is the gift of sleeping late. 

So, that being said, here I find myself on an early Saturday morning writing this. 

Call me crazy, but a 5:30 wake-up with a little bit of coffee is actually preferable for me.

I’m grateful for my early morning time. 

I’m specifically grateful today, as I totally abandoned the topic I thought I would be writing about.

I’ll save that for next weekend, and pray that my speed today won’t create too many spelling mistakes or grammar issues heretical in the view of mechanics junkies everywhere. 

See, yesterday evening a thought came to me.

It was more of a single word, and with that single word came a lot of thoughts and feelings. 

So, this is the rabbit I chose to chase this morning. 

Something I don’t often think about is tradition. 

Many are the traditions we throw away, and rightfully so: some just don’t make sense anymore. 

I’m looking at you, jello salad, as well as you, no white pants after Labor Day.

Even the more serious ones, like wearing pantyhose and heels to work every day. 

I’m all for doing a new thing in a new way. 

But what about those traditions we want to keep? 

Many of the traditions in our past are foundational to who we become. 

The most formative, and the most important to uphold, are the traditions that are specific to us personally. 

Those are the traditions passed down to us by those we love, whether through the families we were born into or the families we chose. 

But there are a few things that aren’t outright stated about traditions: 

1. They come with a price.

I think about those traditions my family has passed down and instilled in me: 

Traditions can be hard work. 

It’s one of the most time- and energy-consuming ways to both serve those you love and uphold the love imparted to you by your forebears. 

2. There is a difference between tradition and routine. 

I am a routine-oriented person. I have a specific way that I operate daily that keeps me content and happy. 

But routine, I think, is more self-driven. It’s more of an inward-pointing practice, often on a daily basis, to keep us sane. 

Routine is more instinctual, while tradition is more apt to put us out on a limb.

3. There are tangible and intangible traditions. 

Some traditions are events, such as the aforementioned vacations and holiday get-togethers. 

But aren’t some of the most important traditions the values and beliefs older generations put in our laps? 

There is a legacy passed down from both the Mullis and the Meadows sides of the family of hard work: the capacity to and belief that we should give 100% of whatever we’re capable of. 

There is that of service: that we do for each other, as well as those who don’t have the means or capabilities that we ourselves have. 

There is that of faithfulness: that when the going is hard, you lean in, rather than run out, placing value on the commitments you made to a person or thing. 

And, one of my favorites: there is that tradition of family love: that we honor the family our parents and grandparents built, that we love each other and show up, even when life gets hectic. 

4. Even the smallest things Teach on tradition. 

I have a family cookbook I love. It’s my favorite thing I have in my kitchen. 

My mother wrote out all of our family’s best dishes- the ones we grew up on. 

I cook those sometimes, and it can transport me back to weeknight dinners, sitting around the table with my parents, Walker, and Caroline. 

It’s not the power of beef stroganoff: it’s the power of tradition that brings up those memories. And that cookbook is yet another show of love my Momma gave me. 

Because if there is another tradition both sides of the family passed down, it’s that we love good food. 

I even get to make the dishes of those I’ve never met. My Grandmama Mary Ann had a recipe for frozen fruit salad I now make for Christmas Eve dinner every year. 

Because of that tradition, as I’m mixing maraschino cherries and crushed pineapple, I think about the stories I’ve heard about her: her love, kindness, and hospitality to all she met. 

Sometimes the obvious is so overpowering that we take it for granted. 

I like to think the Lord pops me over the head sometimes with something I need to be grateful for, and this morning, I’m grateful for the family He’s given me. 

When I’m at our gatherings, I sometimes think: could this be what my grandparents prayed for? 

What a foundation they’ve built.

Tradition we practice, and legacy we honor. 

I often talk about the strong women in my family, and I adore them so much I think because I’m watching them. 

The women in my family are a force to be reckoned with, and that’s something worth modeling. 

If ever I’ve needed a strong female role model, how blessed I am that I never had to look too far.

My Momma was the best teacher I’ve ever known, so education, in some ways, was an inevitable career field for me. I like to think of it as a family business. 

I saw that she gave all she had every day to better kids’ lives. 

I saw that you‘re at your best when you’re at your most creative. 

I see in her that every child and every person is worthy of love (even though she would deny and tell you that she is too introverted to show that). 

My Momma has some of the most understated compassion I’ve ever seen. 

She’s also taught me that, no matter what, we don’t give up on family. She’s shown me what it looks like to overcome heartbreak.

She’s passed on that we don’t fold under the hard stuff. We acknowledge our grief and use it to help others.

My Grandmothers passed down their love for God and their belief in studying His word; that prayer works and is vital to life; that we have to know what we believe; that every cost associated with every good deed is well worth it and valued in the eyes of God. 

My aunts and my cousins: they are witty and hilarious. 

I never doubted that women could be funny because there is never a family get-together where laughter doesn’t abound. 

They work hard and they stick to their guns. They value relationships in such a way so that it overrides their personal priorities. 

They are faithful. They work harder than anyone else I know. 

They passed down a legacy of ambition to me, and there was never any doubt in my mind that I was valued and able to achieve anything that a man could. 

My daddy’s traditions he passed to me are many. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I think my Daddy hung the moon. 

The traditions he’s passed down to me are strong work ethic, steadfast faithfulness, acting instead of reasoning out why you shouldn’t, and a yearly garden. 

Perhaps one of my favorites was that he raised all of us the same way. His legacy for me is that he saw all of us equally: he never had any favoritism.

He taught me to throw a football, just like he did my brother. 

I think about our grocery shopping tradition. 

He would take Walker, Caroline, and me to the Piggly Wiggly, and we would knock out the shopping for the family. 

He would also let us “decide” which bag of cereal to buy (we were not an expensive, boxed cereal kind of family), and that normally meant a fistfight on the floor of aisle 7. 

He’s passed on to me the tradition of giving your all, no matter what. 

There’s also the tradition of having a good attitude, even when you want to throw your tennis racket (literally or proverbially). 

Note- he showed this literally by a loudly-worded conversation the first and last time I ever tried that stunt. 

The common thread of these traditions is love. 

What love it is to pass to the next generation the service, wisdom, and relationships that were passed on to you. 

Traditions: may we honor them and honor the ones who passed them on.

And the biggest way to honor that legacy? Keep on passing.   

Share, scroll down and follow, or scream it from the mountaintops: whatever you choose to do with what you just read, know that I appreciate your time!