Happy Early Thanksgiving – It Doesn’t Matter the Day
Well 2020 hasn’t been like anyone has ever planned. And that’s okay.
I am a planner, but when your plans of who you want to be or what you want to do take center stage over living the here and now, well, that is a problem.
Today my family celebrated Thanksgiving. We didn’t have the traditional turkey. We had Mexican chimichangas, tacos, rice and chips.
And it was good.
Traditions are good, but change is also good. I bet everyone is going to remember this thanksgiving 20 years from now. But will you remember last years? I have already forgotten it.
In 2004, we were slammed with a snow storm a few days before Christmas. We couldn’t get out of the house. Family couldn’t come in. I remember playing cards at the kitchen table as a friend up the street taught us a new game, Yuker. I remember watching Gosford Park on the couch with my family under a layer of blankets as the the snow was falling. I remember unwrapping presents with half my family missing knowing they were safe in their home. I remember playing Monopoly Christmas Eve night. I remember that Christmas because it was different. I have many good memories even though at the time we might have thought it wasn’t going to be a good Christmas.
Different can be bad…but it can also be good.
When we do the same thing, the same things tend to blur.
But when you shift, pivot, change directions, squint, you see things differently. You make new memories. You cherish things more.
As Joni Mitchell sang, “That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”
But it’s not gone. You can leave it, but it didn’t leave you.
So this thanksgiving while you are celebrating with fewer people, take time to embrace the change. Take snapshots of this time. Yes, it’s sad to not see our loved ones, but the blessing we have is knowing our loved ones know they are loved.
So happy early thanksgiving!
May you feel the blessing of 2020.
Peace
