Fried Turkey

Thanksgiving Day...and I'm trying to figure out how to get more than my fair share of fried turkey. In between developing various turkey stealing schemes which mostly involve small defenseless nieces and nephews, I've been pondering the more serious thought of "why is there so little 'thanks' in Thanksgiving?" Actually I only pondered very briefly before I skipped ahead to "how do I put more 'thanks' in my own Thanksgiving" or maybe even more specifically "how do I use this day to my own self-serving advantage".

What I came up with is this: I'm going to make a resolution to start journaling about gratitude. My goal is to journal every night until Christmas and hope the habit sticks like poorly cooked, gummy white rice. Keeping a gratitude journal used to be a habit for me but in that weird way we humans have of not always doing what we know is good for us, I stopped. Cold turkey. Or in honor of my cravings....cold fried turkey.

I'd like to say I just let the good habit slide but the truth is, I stopped journaling intentionally in a great big self-defeating hissy fit of "if I can't get my way I'll just take my paperdolls and go home". See, my life wasn't going so well at the moment. And I went back and read my journal entries from a previous life. There were two kinds of entries: a) gratitude for things I used to have that I no longer had in my new life and b) gratitude for itty-bitty little things (i.e. a daffodil blooming) that every poor schmuck could be grateful for. Both depressed me. So, screw gratitude and all the good vibes that came with it, I quit.

Flash forward to today: I'm tired of fighting. "Uncle, uncle, you win. I want those good feelings back and I'll play by your rules to get them, Universe." Call me crazy, but I liked going to sleep full of love and contentment and joy. So I'm back.

Yeah, like fried turkey, gratitude journaling is very good. Yummy, in fact. But unlike fried turkey, you don't have to fight anyone for extra helpings- there is plenty to go around.