Giving

There is Thanks and there is Giving, but there can't be one without the other. So on this Thanksgiving I have some thoughts to share. Hopefully it will be gravy for your potatoes, or whip cream for your pie. At the very least may you find something savory in it.

In all honesty when my kids suggested they cook dinner this year I had a melt down. I love that they offered, even more, I love that they understood my deep need for a sense of ritual. Basically a need to cook a bird in my own home. A need for normalcy, for tradition. It's been a year of loses, hardships for all of us and grief. After all that you'd think it wouldn't matter who cooked the bird.  But it does.

We need to give of ourselves more than we need to get for our self. It's the giving in Thanksgiving.  I'm learning that the hardships in life soften us in ways one never expects. I'd liked to have skipped that lesson, but then I wouldn't have had to grow.

This is what I wish today and always. May your path be smooth. May your heart be light, may your dinner include dessert. May you understand the need to give, and the grace of receiving. May you feel the love, in spite of the tears. May you take time to rest and to heal. Know you are not alone, and cook when you need to. It helps.