Ahhhhhhhh Happy Thanksgiving to every American in every way!
I was thinking.
I can’t recall the last time I was at my home on Thanksgiving. This has to be the first time. Now, I know there’s been years I woke up in my bed on Thanksgiving, put a dish or two together and headed out to another invited gathering of cool people I want to break bread with.
I’m waiting for my kids to read this and remind me of that one time…. pretty sure not though.
Yet this year, it’s here. We aren’t going anywhere and are making the core of the meal. The gathering will be six of us with four stopping in after on their dinner trek called married and co-wished for at the family tables.
So yeah. It’s a different feeling and yet the exact same as any Thanksgiving morning. I’ve counted at least five states and diverse tables of relations, new family, new friends, different variations and blends of all the above and more – and each Thanksgiving touches on the same level of feels.
From a Buca Di Pepa Turkey day special in Nashville to a 25+ family spread in Iowa to Cracker Barrel in Kentucky and Luau themed family feasts in Ohio and many in West Virginia – I’ve broken bread with the best of the best and I have cherished each and every one.
I enjoy and respite Thanksgiving break. Here’s a few reasons.
- The whole gist of Thanksgiving is gathering together in Thanks. I seek the positive energy to find the grace and thankfulness in my present life. That’s a good thing for us all to do every single day. Good for the you inside you to keep on a growin’ and knowin’.
- It always seems sunny on Thanksgiving. Sure, there could be leaves, there could be snow cover, there could be green grass – it still always seems sunny to me and a glorious day. Ever wonder if it’s all our love energy combining for a guarantee vibe or should I crank the imagination down a notch? It feels like it’s connected some how.
- It’s our time. While we’re here. It’s our entire lives’ tradition that unites us to focus on what matters most – family and friends and good cheer. Who knows which story of how the first dinner went down matter? The who made who or whatsoever that went down 300+ years ago to make this event, how will we ever know? For all we know the elites made it up a hundred fifty ago and we all forgot the truth through the years of this telephone game of story tellin’. Let’s agree on this – how about we not lose or cancel what we morphed it into or created for ourselves and defined it to be today. While we get to enjoy it.
- I give gratitiude to the workers today. I want to say thanks to all the people working national holidays so the world still keeps turning for the rest of us. All public service especially. I spent a few T Days working when I was a youth service worker at the state juvenile facility and third shift security guard at Meskwaki casino. Yet we became those who gathered and still had times of grace and laughter being what it was. Praying those who are today, get that, too. And double time pay or comps.
- Most people are in good moods and after we all eat and chill, it’s usually newspaper shopping ads and football games and all the ladies in the kitchen. I know there’s many variants to who is in the lazy boys, whos planning the morning or online shopping strategy and who’s scrubbing the potato pan, but we can admit these activities all seem to coincide once bellies are full. Board games and movies are way fun, too. More connectedness and calm away from the upcoming re-entry into the rat race.
However you slice it, one thing is true – traditions keep us together, bring us together and can be however you interpret them so we can enjoy our Grace.
What are your traditions? I love hearing how so many people celebrate together in so many ways, while the one true thing remains – Family and Friends and Gratefulness for Today!
Thanks for Reading!
Heather
This guy’s Thanksgiving experience is quite one I now think of, because you can’t unhear it, so now I did think of him. Sending you love vibes and prayers for a remembrance piece for your aunt to add in to your tradition now.
