From my heart to yours, I wish you the opportunity to dine with love, as you sit for a meal among many or on your own. Consider the miraculous nature of your being on this earth, at this particular time and place and know that there is a reason for it. There is so much to learn. There are so many people to get to know. There is so much life to live. There is so much to do to make things better for all of us.
I thank you for all the good that you have done and will do. I thank you for all the kindness that you have shared and will share. I acknowledge that the boundaries you’ve set with those around you were necessary, even if their necessity fades over time, even if their necessity intensifies in the future. The closeness we feel toward one another is meant to shift as we take care of ourselves in healthier ways and care for others from a place of self-caring.
As you gaze upon who is around you, whether upon others or your own reflection, know that you and they are doing their absolute best. Know that you and they can choose to do better if necessary and know that you and they deserve to be treated with respect, no matter what. For more on being respectful in complicated relationships, see my blog entitled, “Psychology: How to be kind in the real world.”
If you find yourself craving more than what you have in front of you, make a mental note to go out and get it when time permits and then return to what you have in front of you and savior it. There will never again be this moment in which you find yourself. The eyes of those around you will never be as young and alive, but they are alive and glistening with life right now. You will never again smell the scent of the flowers on your table in the exact way you sense them now, but they pulse with nectar in this moment, so inhale deeply. Likewise, as you catch your reflection in the mirror, feel the life that throbs within you in each and every moment of your life and say, “thank you for my alive-ness.”
On Thanksgiving we appreciate what we have, but may we also contemplate what we take from others and choose to loosen our grips. May we contemplate our desire to be superior to others and how profoundly that way of being impacts the world and separates us from one another. May we give rather than take. May we share rather than hoard. May we see the other in ourselves and ourselves in others so that we might unite in the physical world the way we are united in the energetic sphere.
May we see that where we are right now, whether in joy or torment, is for the good as it instructs us on what to do going forward, to stay or to go, to shield or to open our arms wide, to feed ourselves or to feed others. From this place of knowing, take a deep breath. Again. Again. I honor the light in you that is also in me. Happy Thanksgiving.