This year I am spending Thanksgiving at my mom’s house with her two sisters and my cousins and their kids. We haven’t all been together in a very long time.
We’ll eat pole beans because my grandmother would have insisted, we’ll go bowling on Friday to get out of the house, but most importantly my boys will get a chance to spend time with their uncles, great aunts and cousins.
We’ll be in Florida but it won’t be particularly warm. My kids will still insist on wearing shorts.
Gratitude is a slippery creature. It tends to show up when I least expect it.
Sometimes Thanksgiving and the celebration of bounty misses the mark for me. I want to feel grateful. I am grateful. But I can’t seem to tap into the source.
I get overwhelmed and distracted with timing things in the oven, the amount of glassware needed, how to find room in the fridge. All of these details make it so hard to stay in the moment. To really be there. To make real connections with anything besides the sweet potatoes.
In a conversation, I’ll find my mind wandering. I’m listening but I’m not participating. I’m constantly checking in with myself, Feeling any gratitude yet? On a scale of one to ten, how grateful would you say that you are?
It’s so simple to say Be in the moment, be present, but what does that really mean? If everyone is in their own little moments will the freakin’ turkey ever make it on the table?
This Thanksgiving I’m scrapping gratitude and taking a different angle. I’m calling it Laugh your face off.
Gratitude will have to wait.
I want to laugh. I want to make people laugh. I want to laugh until I cry. I want to laugh until turkey comes out my nose.
It’s a tall order. But I think my family is up for it.
Happy Thanksgiving – hope your day is filled with laughter.
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