We keep hearing the only thing most people will be grateful for this year is that 2020 will soon be over.
They want to shake off the bad 2020 Karma. Too much insanity, fear, disease, death, overload. Weariness abounds. A period of Thanksgiving in 2020?
You’ve got to be kidding.
Thanksgiving used to be the pause before going full-throttle toward a joy-filled Christmas or Hanukkah and New Year’s.
This year, many folks have already put up their Christmas trees and it’s mid-November! Seems people are so eager for something hopeful, bright, and merry, they can’t wait. These are the same people who complain about stores stocking holiday decorations in September.
How quickly we change.
There’s hardly anything to be grateful for, we reason. Nothing is the same – or even close to it. Chances are, we are staying only with those in our four wall bubble for Thanksgiving.
Another disappointment?
Bring it on…we’re getting hardened to it.
Getting hardened to more bad news is a natural self-preservation response used to keep us from melting into a whimpering puddle.
But, as I point out in my Caregiver Emotions presentations, we are NOT our emotions. Emotions are meant to come and go. If we get so intrinsically wrapped up in our emotions, we run the risk of identifying with them.
Feel resentment too often; don’t process that resentment; don’t release that resentment – then you can become resentful and bitter.
Negative emotions need to be reigned in, examined, discussed, processed, and released.
Have there really been no blessings this year?
If you are reading this, there’s a big blessing right there – you are alive! Your eyes work! Your brain works! Your technology works!
No big vacation this year?
Remember about walking the local beach on a day trip with one friend?
No party for your birthday?
How about the blessing of those working in a local restaurant so you could get takeout?
Feeling disconnected from family? How about the incredible blessing of Facetime?
How about the miracle found in the technology of a Zoom call that keeps groups together and enables weddings to be totally safe by being virtual?
“GRATITUDE IS A HEART TENDERIZER”
That’s a quote from Sarah M. Wells in her 9 Examples of Thanksgiving in the Bible. There’s so much power in that statement.
How’s your gratitude jar looking? In my first post of this year – CLICK HERE. I shared with you how to start a gratitude jar. Did you stop putting in the little blessings you were grateful for after March 17th?
Or were you like me, finding the blessings that surround us each day?
If there ever was a time to tenderize our hearts, 2020 would be it. We need to liberally sprinkle around some gratitude in our lives. Not only will it improve our general outlook, but relationships and situations will improve.
May your favorite spice be gratitude.
Stir it into every situation and interaction. It will turn the hardened days into something more tender, savory, and palatable.
Happy Thanksgiving dear readers – YOU are a blessing to me!
Deidre
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