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.
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
This One Is Tough....
Yikes...I'm really having a hard time with this one....it is like dragging a concrete block across a gravel road....lots of resistance. In this case, the resistance is psychological: I totally don't want to acknowledge this truth but yeesh, not acknowledging it won't make it less true...will it?
So here is the story. I'm bummed because I'm getting ready to have a pathetic little loser Thanksgiving with no one but my sister and her family. (That isn't the big truth, by the way.) At her house, no less. This is so depressing. I'm used to family rolling into MY house starting about noon on Wednesday. After an evening of greetings and pumpkin pie baking, we are drunk on love, anticipation, and yes, possibly a little wine. By midnight, we've hung folks to sleep on every spare peg and set the alarm to put the 20 pound bird in at the crack of dawn. On the big T-day itself even more people arrive until my little bitty house is close to bursting, the noise level has reached maximum irritation, and the kitchen counters are so covered in food that no one can tell there is 1970's vintage butcher block formica under it all.
But this year will be different. No one will be arriving at my house at all. I'll drink coffee by myself T-day morn and then head over to my sister's where we will politely eat turkey and I'll be home alone by mid-day. Yuck. No chaotic crowds in the kitchen the night before, no mad rush for my two miniscule bathrooms, no small yapping dogs.
This is the hard part....I have to be grateful anyway. I mean with it being Thanksgiving and everything, you know, I really am kind of obligated to be grateful, aren't I? I've got to take a walk on the sunny side of the street and realize, gulp, that I have a lot to be thankful for. (That is THE BIG TRUTH in case you can't tell.) After all, plenty of people would be thrilled to have a whole loving sister family to have dinner with. And a lot more people can't even fathom the ridiculous joy and sense of belonging that comes with having a huge, noisy, sometimes obnoxious family to gnaw on drumsticks with.
So bummer. This year my sister (yeah, she feels ripped off too) and I will have to make do with our motley crew of a meager seven. But while we try to overlook the 20 empty seats we will thankfully remember that we are among the lucky few. We are lucky to have a lifetime of memories of loving parents and brothers and sisters and cousins and nieces and nephews and all the assorted in-laws and out-laws and chaos and bedlam and pies and weird casseroles.
We're lucky to have each other. Happy GratitudeDay to us.
So here is the story. I'm bummed because I'm getting ready to have a pathetic little loser Thanksgiving with no one but my sister and her family. (That isn't the big truth, by the way.) At her house, no less. This is so depressing. I'm used to family rolling into MY house starting about noon on Wednesday. After an evening of greetings and pumpkin pie baking, we are drunk on love, anticipation, and yes, possibly a little wine. By midnight, we've hung folks to sleep on every spare peg and set the alarm to put the 20 pound bird in at the crack of dawn. On the big T-day itself even more people arrive until my little bitty house is close to bursting, the noise level has reached maximum irritation, and the kitchen counters are so covered in food that no one can tell there is 1970's vintage butcher block formica under it all.
But this year will be different. No one will be arriving at my house at all. I'll drink coffee by myself T-day morn and then head over to my sister's where we will politely eat turkey and I'll be home alone by mid-day. Yuck. No chaotic crowds in the kitchen the night before, no mad rush for my two miniscule bathrooms, no small yapping dogs.
This is the hard part....I have to be grateful anyway. I mean with it being Thanksgiving and everything, you know, I really am kind of obligated to be grateful, aren't I? I've got to take a walk on the sunny side of the street and realize, gulp, that I have a lot to be thankful for. (That is THE BIG TRUTH in case you can't tell.) After all, plenty of people would be thrilled to have a whole loving sister family to have dinner with. And a lot more people can't even fathom the ridiculous joy and sense of belonging that comes with having a huge, noisy, sometimes obnoxious family to gnaw on drumsticks with.
So bummer. This year my sister (yeah, she feels ripped off too) and I will have to make do with our motley crew of a meager seven. But while we try to overlook the 20 empty seats we will thankfully remember that we are among the lucky few. We are lucky to have a lifetime of memories of loving parents and brothers and sisters and cousins and nieces and nephews and all the assorted in-laws and out-laws and chaos and bedlam and pies and weird casseroles.
We're lucky to have each other. Happy GratitudeDay to us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)