Halloween was one week and three days ago, but you wouldn't be able to guess that by the Christmas music playing and the trees starting to line the windows. As soon as we hang up our costumes the next big event is already underway by hanging up the ornaments...
but we're skipping something here.
I'll give you a hint. It's the fourth Thursday in November, it normally involves a huge family dinner and a couple days off from school to recover.
If you didn't guess Thanksgiving, this may be a bigger problem than I anticipated.
On October 31st we have our parties and we go trick or treating and have a grand old time having as much fun as we can and getting as much candy as we can. I don't care if your five or one hundred, I know you want candy on Halloween.
On November 1st it turns into an entirely different scene. We start hanging up the lights, shopping for presents and turning up the holly jolly tunes.
We completely disregard the twenty-something days of the Thanksgiving season.
I think this has to do with the idea of our individualistic society. It's all about what I can get and how much more I need or think I need. We rarely take a minute to be grateful for what we have. If we're single we want to be in a relationship. If we're in a relationship we want the other one to conform to our standards of what we want them to be. If we have nice things we always want better. We always want more more more because it's about what I want and think I need. And that's just it. What have we turned Halloween into? What have we turned Christmas into?
Halloween has turned into a competition of who has the best parties, the best costume, the creepiest decorations, the most candy. It's all about me. It's all about leaving responsibilities and having a crazy good time.
Christmas has been turned into the same thing. At least a small part of us is (or should be) excited for the true meaning of Christmas and getting gifts for other people that make them smile. But we all know that we are eagerly looking forward to whatever new item we are going to unwrap from the shiny paper. It's turned into something that's about me. I have to get the best presents, I need to get the best or most expensive presents for other people. It's turned into nothing more than getting a good sale and then getting good presents.
And that's why we skip Thanksgiving...
Because Thanksgiving is the time where we are supposed to focus on what we have that we love, not what we think we lack. And even if we don't love everything in our life we should still be thankful that we even get to wake up everyday and get caught up in the new adventures of that day. We should be thankful for the people that have come into our lives and taught us lessons or became blessings. We should be sitting beside our family members... serving them, loving them, laughing with them, and genuinely enjoying who they are as people. It should be a time to reflect on and be thankful for where we have been, how far we have come and the new opportunities that are going to come in our future.
But we don't want to be thankful.
We want to want more. We don't want to be grateful, satisfied, or thankful. Our nature is to think for ourselves and to always want for ourselves. It's not natural for us to to think of others. It's not natural for us to be selfless. It's not natural for us to be content with what we have. It's not natural for us to be thankful. It's hard to go against our nature and to choose to see things differently in our lives.
That's right, I said it was a choice and that it's going to be difficult....But it's worth it.
Because when you start to shift your thinking to be thankful and content, you enjoy life more. That candy becomes sweeter, the turkey becomes even more delicious and those presents become special... you thought about what was truly important about each of these and you made these things and people special. Instead of thinking about what you don't have you think of everything in a new light, and that is what makes life worth living. It may add a couple of calories to your plate but it's definitely time to stop skipping the turkey.
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