Grateful Traditions

Thanksgiving Day.  Today is the day that we, as American's, have set aside to take time to be with family, eat Turkey, and be thankful for all that we have.  It is a day to travel.  A day to eat.  A day to plan your major shopping plan of attack for the sales.  It is the least commercial (or has been traditionally at least) of American major holidays.  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite of holiday as well.  

Thanksgiving doesn't care what your budget is or how many presents you can bring to the party.  Though the ability to make something off the charts awesome in the kitchen is respected.  Thanksgiving doesn't care whether you are gathered with two people or twenty.  Thanksgiving doesn't care if you are eating a turkey sandwich by yourself watching movies.  Thanksgiving cares about what is in your heart.  Hope beats bitterness.  Love beats apathy.  Peace beats revenge.  Rich, poor, hopeful, apathetic, alone, or with many; Thanksgiving doesn't care.

Right now, to be perfectly honest, I'm suffering for something akin to ADHD on crack.  That really makes it hard to develop and type coherent thoughts.  My coffee limit is about 2 cups a day, preferably in the morning.  However, I had about 3 cups in 20ish minutes after lunch.  I have so many things I would like to convey to you but they are sorta jumbled in the attention deficit that is happening in my brain right now.   

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday.  Just the premise of a holiday that is, at the foundation, about gratitude and giving.  It's quite cliche to say this, however despite how bad we feel about our lives are they could always be worse.  Regardless of what we feel we don't have but want/need we could have even less than we do.  I told you it was cliche and possibly even trite.  There are times in all of our lives that we think it can't get any worse.  There are times in all of our lives where we feel like everything is falling into place.  Most of the time we live somewhere in the middle.  The key to contentment, in my opinion, is to be grateful right where you are.  We don't need a holiday to be grateful for what we have.  It helps.  Many have started participating in the 30 days of thankful on social media.  Gratefulness for 30 days is a step up from 1 day.  But that leaves 11 months for us to remember to stop periodically and just be.  Be in our moment, grateful for what we have, thankful we have the opportunities we have.  Even if they aren't what we want, where we want, they are still better than the other options out there.  

Eight years ago Ma and I made our first Thanksgiving Day trip to Backroads Pizza and Grill in Hawk Point Missouri (outside Troy...near St. Louis).  Just the two of us.  A cousin owns the restaurant and that side of the family all chose to meet there for the day.  That was the year that Grandma had passed away and it was Ma's first holiday as an orphan.  I don't think it matters your age, the first holiday's without a parent is a big deal.  I personally actually like this particular branch of the family.  I enjoy spending time with them listening to the chatter and just absorbing the ambiance.  Eight years ago Ma and I started a new holiday tradition.  Traditions become traditions because they just feel right.  I had no grandparents to spend the day with anymore.  And going to visit this branch of the family, specifically Great Aunt Gladys who feels more like another grandma than anything else.  Hawk Point and Thanksgiving go together like pumpkin pie and hotel rooms :D  (Remind me to tell you about hotel pie one day.)  Thanksgiving and Hawk Point is a tradition I hope continues for many more years.  It just feels right.

Today I am grateful for coffee.  Even if it helped to create a disjointed soup of a blog that I'm not even sure I can follow along.  I am grateful for my car which gets me where I need and want to go, most of the time.  I am grateful for my day job that I love.  I may not always be the best or even close to right but I enjoy my job and the people I get to spend time with every day.  I am grateful for the Fizzy Pop Collection.  The FPC gives me opportunities to engage in different social arenas and outlets that I might not otherwise engage in.  It allows me to be as creative as I want to be when I want to be creative.  I am ever so grateful for my family, ok most of it :D  My family, past, present, and future play a role in who I am in this moment and at any moment in my life.  I'm Granny, Grandma, Ma, and many others all wrapped into one.  All of that makes me who I am for better or worse.  I am grateful for my friends.  My chosen family.  Every person I have allowed in my life through the years has helped to shape who I am. I am thankful for those friends I can connect with randomly or consistently and always know where I am like it was moments since we last connected.  I am grateful that I can write about my gratefulness and share my gratefulness.  

And you know what, I'm grateful for coffee :D  If you actually made it this far and aren't really sure what the message was have some coffee and try again.  I swear it makes sense when you are on caffeine overload!  I am grateful for each person who has the opportunity to do anything they desire on the internet and they chose to read this. Whether you see this today or three months from now share with my your grateful.  What are YOU thankful for?

~~Jan~~