Hold Me Now

Chapter 24: Gratitude

The plane ride home was less dramatic than the ride going to Savannah. Before it took off, Johnny held out his hand. "Slap some Dramamine on me. Just knock me out, Babe, and wake me up when we land." She gave him some and he was out the whole flight. With no one to talk to, she worked on some literature homework. Once again the assignment is to write in the literature notebook, thoughts concerning the remaining chapters of the book. She decided to focus on something often overlooked in the story. While most people will focus on the fulfillment of Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship, she is going to focus on a different thing. With Thanksgiving fresh on her mind, she took the theme of gratitude. Starting at chapter fifty-one, Ava took out her pink pen and began writing.

Most of the remaining chapters focus on gratitude, either the lack of it or the sufficiency of it. There are many contrasts for this. First are the obvious ones of Mr. Wickham, Lydia, and Mrs. Bennet. They are grotesquely ungrateful. Take Mrs. Bennet, for example, she goes on and on about fake physical ailments. This coupled with her gossipy pride, and how she's willing to over Lydia's reckless, cavalier behavior, shows how senseless she truly is.

It's no shock that Lydia is just like her. She and Wickham reinforce each other's bad qualities. Their relationship is none existent. It's based on shallow, really superficial, stuff. When the storms come it will blow them down. They have no foundation to fall back on. The contrast to this is Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, who has quietly been laying a foundation in all of the previous chapters. The two of them bring out each other's better qualities and encourage each to change different behaviors. That's what relationships should be like.

Never once did those three self-centered characters say "thank you" or "I'm sorry". Both Lydia and Wickham weren't sorry for putting the Bennet family through pain and suffering. They surely weren't thankful for being bailed out of a reputation crisis. And Mrs. Bennet never said those words either. She's still focused on frivolous matters and continues to treat Darcy with disdain. They are three of the ugliest characters written on the pages of literature.

But then how thankful and grateful are we, in our own lives? How do you say thank you for little things? You humble yourself and say it. Gratitude opens the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough. It helps you see what's there, instead of what isn't there. Every high and every low is a blessing, even if we don't see the lows as such. The setback is a setup for the comeback. Gratitude is everything.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy humbled themselves. From their humbleness came their gratitude. Her love of him was thanks enough in itself, for bailing her family out of Lydia's misery. In the blink of an eye, everything could be taken away. That's why we should be grateful every day in every way, for everything we have.

And the truth of it is, nothing will be the same in a year. All things change, they have to. But gratitude will change your sight of vision. If I am not happy, grateful, for what I have then what makes me think I'd be happy with more?

When they returned home, from Thanksgiving in Savannah, the month of December was thrust upon them. December brought many things, but most especially the tournament and Christmas. First, Johnny and Ava helped decorate houses for Christmas. 

They started with her family. In their living room, the family tree went up, big and tall and just perfect. Both Ava and Johnny helped hang the family ornaments. There are different ornaments representing different things. There's an ornament for every child. As a family tradition, each child is gifted an ornament, each year, after Thanksgiving. The precious decoration represents them in some way.