A Reason for Giving Thanks

You can run, but you can't hide. The holidays are here!

The 'official' start of the holiday season (in the US) is this week with Thanksgiving. A holiday shared in many cultures across many centuries, in one form or another. The growing season at an end, the harvests completed, stores of food to last a brutal winter, and a big party to celebrate and brace for the difficult months to come. Historically, in the US, it's tied to the first pilgrims and their rather miraculous survival (with the help of those who were already here). It didn't become an official holiday here until the 1940's, I think. But the heart of Thanksgiving is to be thankful for life, health, food, family, and friends.

This is a hard time of year for many folks, myself included. Things have changed for me in recent months...a devastating loss, and then a slow but steady path back towards healing. Of course, there's also a little blond boy who rules my world--he has certainly helped to bring back a sense of wonder to my Christmas spirit.

For the past month, I've used my status updates in facebook to express what I'm thankful for each day. It's been a great deal of fun...I've given thanks for the simplest things, a pretty day, a good cup of coffee, a talk with a friend, and I've given thanks for my husband, my son, and my incredibly blessed life.

The habit of giving thanks is a sure road to happiness. The more you stop and see what you *have* rather than what you don't, the more you count your blessings and the happier you become. Well, it works for me anyway.

So, I'd like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to any American followers, and to anyone else who happens to stumble along, have a good holiday season. :D

peace

46 days till WHAT?

So, I'm doing my daily ritual of facebooking, and someone sends me some new app thingy that tells me it's 46 days until Christmas. Although I own many calendars, including the one that bosses me around all day long on my blackberry, I still managed to be surprised. The number of presents I've purchased? zero The number of christmas cards I've purchased? zero The number of lists (I LOVE the lists) designed to get my arse in gear? zero *reaches for pen and paper to begin list number ONE*

But before the insanity of an over-commercialized, highly inebriated christmas, we've got to get through Thanksgiving. My husband is working that wednesday, thursday, and friday, and my mom and I are planning a road trip with my son down to OK to see some relatives. This should be very interesting. (that's code for 'wtf was I thinking agreeing to go without my husband?')

In my youth, my family was tightly knit...holidays were passed together, with kids sleeping on floor while the adults laughed into the early morning playing cards. Cancer, death, divorce, & MUCH relocating have since intervened. My son won't get to experience these big family events, not in the same way, not the Norman Rockwell perfection I clearly remember. *sighs* So, I pack up the kiddo and head south, trying to recreate some of that 'spirit of things past' for my son. Wish me luck.

'Tis the season...let's try for peace.