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My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Yes, partly for the food – the turkey, the side dishes, the gravy, the sweet potatoes – oh the sweet potatoes! One year I made four different types of sweet potatoes because I love them so much. I love making food to share with my loved ones. It is a feast for the senses – the smells, the tastes, the sights, the feels, and the sounds. All pure yumminess. Yet my most favorite part of Thanksgiving is that it is an invitation to be in our hearts and practice gratitude.
Gratitude for ALL of it… the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Gratefulness for the goodness of the year. The gifts of being surrounded by loved ones. The blessings of seeing children grow and heart-felt desires coming to fruition. Gratitude for the the beautiful and unexpected discoveries, finds, and surprises. You know the ones that made you jump up and down in complete and utter astonishment. Recognition that the bad and the ugly arrived to grow you, teach you, heal you, and expand you. Heart break a bidding for a heart opening. Dis-ease and illness being a requests for more self-care, self-love, and compassion for our human condition. The end of a relationship being a petition for completion with what drew you together so that each of you can love even deeper. Grieving what no longer serves you as a way of welcoming what really does. The beautiful – well, that is whatever made your heart leap, what softened you, what helped you experience love more purely, and most of all that which widened your heart into deeper unconditional self-love and self-acceptance. Thankfulness and the honoring of life’s exquisite masterpieces. Yes, those moments that took your breath away. To be in our hearts during this holiday may be the greatest reason for thanksgiving. To be in our hearts recognizing that we are alive and that we can be in our loving no matter what is happening. For at least this one day to love all our sisters and brothers, forgetting what divides us and separates us. After all, our differences add spices and a variety of textures to life. Now that is pure yumminess. Wishing you a beautiful and heart-felt Thanksgiving. With all my love, 
Originally posted on 11/25/2016 |
