Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, a day of celebration here in the US.  The fourth Thursday in November.  This first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a meal and infected blankets.  Albeit true, and needs to be acknowledged, I’m going to focus on a day for giving thanks and being filled with gratitude and sharing the abundance you have with others. 

Many tables will be filled with family and great food or maybe it’s dry and under seasoned.  Tables may be filled with conversations to catch up in each other’s lives or perhaps dancing around political differences or hitting them head on.  Maybe the table has missing family members this year.

Everyone’s Thanksgiving looks a little different.  Your day may start by heading out into cold air to run a race or attend a football game, or you may hunker down in your jammies and watch the Macy’s day parade.

The day might be full. Full of traveling and moving from one location to another.  Full of family, conversation, and laughter.  Full of sweet smells of turkey and pies.  Stuffing the turkey, stuffing ourselves.  Sharing what we are thankful for.  The day might be quiet and quaint.  The day could also be full of family, conversation and laughter and you feel exhausted just thinking about it.  The day could also leave you longing to be with family and friends and it’s not possible.

Thanksgiving has long been one of my favorite holidays.  My traditions and rhythms behind the day have changed along the way.  The way family has looked has changed too.  When I was young my Thanksgivings were small, quaint but filled with happy memories of my grandmother’s house.  As my grandparent’s got older and passed on, traditions and time brought change.  The rhythm changed.  The Thanksgiving table grew, the plate settings grew, the recipes and dishes grew.  I met my husband, we got married and had kids of our own.  This brought new rhythms to our Thanksgiving traditions.  What family looked like changed.  Covid hit and things changed again. 

You may have planned traditions like a football game or a special family dish.  You may not think you have traditions.  In the moment you may not have considered them a tradition (maybe the word tradition makes you cringe), whatever you call it, it’s likely there quietly weaving itself into your memories.  The welcoming special hugs from your grandparents, breakfast cinnamon rolls or casseroles. The teddy bear dishes that someone considered fine China, gramma’s turkey soup, nana’s homemade apple pie.  The traditions may not be intentional, in fact they might be quite loosie goosey, but they are there.

Changes continue to happen and will continue to happen, that’s a natural, organic, part of life.  Family changes, people grow up, people pass on, babies are born, and new traditions will blossom.

Today might be full of people, places, or food.  Your day might be quiet and quaint.  It might be a reservation at a restaurant, that was one year for us.  The thoughts I give to you today, that I remind myself of.  Live in the moment.  Find the joy in today.  Don’t compare yourself to what it’s “supposed to look like”.  What it’s supposed to look like, is what you make it for you and the people you spend the day with.

 However you spend it, wishing you a day filled with joy and creating new memories.