It’s the week of Thanksgiving here in the States, so of course, everyone is talking about gratitude. What they are thankful for, how to teach gratitude to their children, prepping for the commercial barrage that has already started for Christmas (am I the only one who has been seeing tonnes of pre- Black Friday sales since Halloween?).
Yes we should stop and think about what we are thankful for. And without going into the whole politics of Thanksgiving and how the mythos of the first thanksgiving is probably wrong, for most Americans this is a time to gather with family, friends, and feast.
I have a friend who hates Thanksgiving because she always ends up spending it with family, cooking most of it and she just doesn’t feel supported. We are nowhere near our family (the closest is in Ohio the rest in New Zealand or Australia) so we have always taken turns getting together with different friends on Thanksgiving Day and ending the day with desserts and tabletop games into the wee hours.
Last year on the way home from Thanksgiving my 5 year old needed to pee and there was no place to stop. We offered hanging her butt out the window as there was snow on the ground but she was uninterested in that solution. At the last minute, I remembered that we were going by the hospital and they are always open. Sure enough, I think we made the ER’s night when I walked in with four girls and all we wanted was to use their bathroom. The nurse made a big deal to my younger ones that the hospital is always there for the bathroom if they ever need it. It is great to have a non-painfilled memory of one of our local hospitals.
I have talked in previous posts about our gratitude tree and how we have in the past talked about one thing we are grateful for before eating our dinner. We have fallen off doing that lately as life has felt chaotic and we are just happy to have dinner on the table. I should probably start it up again.
I have done gratitude lists myself off and on over the last few years. I can’t say it’s a practice I keep constantly. But I do think about it constantly. I do take deep breaths and sink into the moment and appreciate it for what it is. I just don’t always get it written down. I am always grateful for cups of coffee, cuddle time with our three cats and this growing wiggly baby inside. I am grateful for heat in the winter and cool breezes in the summer and the pig in our freezer. I am grateful for family and friends and the relationships my children are building in the world. I am grateful for having food to eat. This is not just true on Thanksgiving or in the month of November. This is always true. And I do my best to think about it a lot. The other day I was thankful for rain instead of snow. I am thankful for the reusable choices we have made so that we are not always having to buy something for that solution. I am grateful for small things like subscription boxes of feminine products for my girls and being able to buy toilet paper in bulk because if I had to remember these things on my own we would never have it.
What about you? Do you just remember to talk about gratitude this time of year or is it something you try to always incorporate into your life? What does gratitude mean to you and how do you share that with your family?
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