When I was growing up, Thanksgiving revolved about the family being home together. We didn't go out to eat........we didn't wake up at 3AM to be the 5,346th person in line at the mall......we just stayed home. We ate too much of the things we knew we wouldn't get the rest of the year, and we just enjoyed the fact that no one had to be anywhere for any reason. If we were kids, we played outside as long as we could, no matter the weather, until we were called in to eat.
To me, that's Thanksgiving.
That being said, my Thanksgivings as an adult have changed over the years. They've gone from --
- feeling guilty because I lived too far away to get home to see my Mom to....
- My nuclear family of four, that kind of "fell apart" after my divorce, to myself and my daughters trying to create our own new "normal" Thanksgiving traditions.
- People I met for the first time, because they couldn't get home to their own families, and my daughters brought them home. My house has been so full of people I'm not sure I even got introduced to them all while they were here because I was so busy cooking;
- Grandchildren experiencing a Thanksgiving meal for the first time in their precious lives;
- To being a guest at some elses house for the day.
And, so......the holidays, like the rest of our lives continue to change. That is what life is .....some good, some bad, some you can't remember, but always moving in one direction or another. I think it's important to make your own traditions, but it's also important to recognize life doesn't stay the same for anyone for very long. I love the phrase "everything has it's season". Rather than looking at what has changed, and missing what was......
Invite someone over who may not have a family......
Find an opportunity to give back to your community......
Make a list of people you haven't talked to and call them on Thanksgiving......
Donate an entire Thanksgiving meal to a family who can't afford to buy their own......
Just know, that in the universe, your life matters. Whether it's filled with a house full of people, or it's just you.......you have a great purpose for being here. Never doubt that, and focus on what you've been blessed with, not what
you wish you had.
And if you're really brave......get up at 3AM and stand in the cold dark night air with the other gazillions of Black Friday shoppers, just to buy that special something you know you just can't live without!
(I'll be home asleep!)
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