Thanksgiving!

Waited for it. Finally came. The big Turkey Day, Thanksgiving!

This is my favorite holiday of the year. There are others on the list, high up, but Thanksgiving is my favorite. I think it is because everything and everybody that is important in my life is present on this day. Good food, too. But none of the pressure of gift giving attached to the day.

Expectations are only of time to be spent with others, and enjoying wonderful foods reminding us of times and people from the past.

Thanksgiving is part of my heritage. Most likely it is of yours as well.

Focusing one day of the year on what matters to me – you, us – is healthy. It is good for our character to feel humility and caring. Empathy is not overrated. It is an essential part of our emotional personality. It is unique to each of us and makes us human.

A better human.

I am not the center of my universe. Oh sure, we are the center of who and what we know, but it is the getting out of that center that allows us to grow, feel and be more human. For one thing, we are exposed to differentness. Uniqueness of others, too. We learn to share the planet with others. We realize the enormity of the world and what we have in common. And feel. And need. The beginning of awareness or at least the expansion of knowing the world in its larger dimension enhances the self, not diminishes it.

For that I am thankful. I am thankful for each and every person in my family. I am thankful of friends near and far. I am thankful for the memories of those long ago visited in the past but not forgotten.

This is a day that helps us understand the accumulative nature of our life’s growth. We live and do things, meet people, experience actions and variable environs and evolve our knowledge of life itself. What does it mean to me? What does this help me do in the future? How can this enhance lives of others?

Thankful, not content. Evolving to something more, not remaining static. Being more in the world, an investment.

And the payoff for this investment? Ah! That’s where it becomes more interesting, enticing! We don’t know the payoff. We just hope it is good and to be the cause of thankfulness in the future.

Cherish these days. They are special. In company of other loved ones or not, reach out with memories of them or phone, email, Zoom or Facetime them.

May this be a blessed day for you and yours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2020