Happy Thanksgiving. I love that there is holiday that is about gratitude. It’s one of the best things that we can do. We all stop for a day, gather with loved ones and acknowledge about what we feel grateful for.
It’s beautiful.
Except when it’s hard, which it often is.
I can always find something to feel grateful for. I am sick this Thanksgiving Day, with a case of pneumonia. It’s what happens to me when I push too hard, over work and burn out. So today I am grateful for a few days off to rest and recover. And I am grateful for antibiotics (yay!) and for my very breath.
Breathing is good. Today I am grateful for the fact that I can take a deep breath without pain and coughing. Funny how we tend to take things for granted until we don’t have them anymore.
I love gratitude practices, it softens the heart and opens up the soul. And it primes the pump for receiving more of whatever we are grateful for.
My family has taught me a lot about gratitude. I come from a long line of women on my mother’s side who can find the one thing that’s good in the middle of a blitzkrieg and focus on that. Bombs could be falling on their heads and they would set a table with the silver and china, make a meal out of one potato that would feed 20 people and feel genuine gratitude as they sat down to eat, bless them.
I have learned that habit too, for which I am grateful! Gratitude can always been found if you step back far enough. “Well, thank God we are still all alive today. No one went to jail, died or threw up. There was no police or emergency room visits. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and I can breath. Food is on the table, football is on TV and family is all around. It’s a good day.”
If things are really bad you just keep backing up and looking at things from a longer view. Maybe imagine standing on the moon and looking down at earth. “Well, the earth is still round and mostly still blue and green. Solar system is spinning, galaxy rotating properly. The stars are shining, interstellar traffic looks nice and clear and solar storms are at a low. It’s a good day.”
I feel grateful for my family for teaching me this way of being. It’s a wonderful balm for the unpredictable nature of the world. I feel sad for those that can only be happy and relaxed when they get proper control of every situation. It easier to go with the flow, allow things to unfold as they will and then find the sweet bits to appreciate.
I am grateful for the fact that I really LIKE all my family members as well as loving them. I sometimes forget how rare that is.
I hope that you find your sweet moments in the day and appreciate the heck out of them. Maybe even it’s the very end of the day when everything is over and done with, all the people are gone and the kitchen cleaned up. Maybe it’s that gentle moment when your head hits the pillow.
May you find your sweetness today.
May you find someone to share love and food with.
May gratitude and love fill your heart.
May you be of good health and good cheer.
May you get through the rough bits with grace, ease and good humor.
And if it’s really awful, may you get through it quick!
I am grateful for you all. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
