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Christmas is here! Well, not here-here, but definitely “kind of” here. The time of year when budgets and practical spending and better judgement all get set aside in the spirit of pure, unadulterated indulgence. Say that 5 times really fast.
But Christmas is upon us, marked by posts of frozen lakes in the North and all your a-hole friends in Florida sitting on beaches wearing heavy coats and earmuffs. Oh, and Thanksgiving: the official kickoff to the sacred tradition of gluttony.
And I couldn’t be more thankful!
Because it’s the Holiday Season that brings back so many memories of being young and innocent and brimming with excitement. Times where the smells that waft through the house are some inexplicable yet perfect combination of cinnamon and evergreen and comfort food. Smells that belong only to this time of year. So breathe it in, baby, this is your reprieve… and you’ve earned it.
What a miracle it is to be alive.
For me, that statement couldn’t be any more apropos because my journey has been littered with moments where it could have all gone a different direction. Cancer, drug addiction, depression, loneliness, prison, take your pick. Yet here I am, alive. Not only alive, but actually thriving and surrounded by so much joy and purpose that, quite frankly, it doesn’t seem fair to everyone else. It’s kind of like, um, hey Universe, are you sure I deserve all this? But, oh well, fair’s fair. I’ll take it, even if it’s just for the holidays. And I’ll be happy and overwhelmingly grateful because a lifetime of work went into this happiness.
So, yes, this Thanksgiving I am beyond grateful. Not just because I managed to live through it all, but also because all those trials and tribulations happened to me years ago in order to culminate into this amazing revelation that life is pretty damn good.
Thankful for the heartache? What a concept.
The holiday season is important to your soul for so many reasons. While the know-it-alls exhaust their energy trying to convince you of what the holidays should be about, make it about you. That’s right. Make the season a time to reflect on how good your life really is. On how, although it is definitely different than you thought it might turn out, it is still an enthralling scrapbook of exciting adventures that created who you are. How potentially there is a plan to all this chaos and everything – EV-AH-REE-THING – happens for a reason. And although getting to this point wasn’t easy, you’re here now and, by golly, it was worth it.
Un-limit your happiness.
This time of year is a time to be thankful and resonate at those higher frequencies where we can shed the copious amount of bullshit that has limited our happiness the other three hundred and some odd days and just lean into a bit of the good stuff. Feel free to see beyond people’s crap and gaze into the core of that inner thing that makes us all the same. Heading into this time of year is when we all have full permission to be more human, more humane and believe it might just all be ok in the end.
Those promises that life whispered in our young, believing minds so many years ago, when we were children, all return this time of year if we just sit back and let them.
So let them.
Life is what it is… so what is it?
This Thanksgiving, take the time to sit in silence and let the gratitude consume you. Release the judgement and the expectation of what life is supposed to be and give thanks that it is what it is. Because what it is, is a miracle. What it is, is a gift. What it is, is a series of memories and hugs and togetherness in a world that isn’t always fair. Where even in the bad times there are people who want to protect you, who want to lift you up, who care deeply about what you are going through. And in my mind, that’s as much as any of us could ask for.
And a lot of those folks are the ones passing the mashed potatoes and stuffing, so open your eyes and your hearts and give thanks. Because this is all the “stuff” that makes life worth living rolled up into the spirit of the next 5 weeks.
So don’t blink because it will all be gone before you know it.