You lay tucked between Halloween’s spooky ghosts and December’s twinkling lights. Amid the stress of black Friday sales and obtaining everyone’s Christmas lists, we often disregard the importance of celebrating our blessings with those we love most but on November 24th, you give us the opportunity to do just that. While you’re known most for your oven-roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, you are about more than turkey comas and finger-paint crafts. Thanksgiving, you have a history of bringing people together and you are founded in family, friendship, and gratitude.
What makes you special is the different ways in which people celebrate you and what you mean to each of them. You have the power to bring family members together, to loosen lips to stories passed between generations, and to bring laughter to those who really need it. You are the reason toothless toddlers, competitive cousins, and tipsy aunts and uncles fight to be the one to get the better end of the wishbone. The beauty I find in you, is that despite the unique recipes and traditions shared by each individual gathering, everyone is celebrating the same thing. They are coming together to forget about what isn’t going their way and to give thanks for all that they have been blessed with.
There are no secret Santas or candles to blow out. At the heart, you are just an evening of good food, company, and authentic celebration of all that life has given. Thanksgiving, thank you for giving us the opportunity to be humble, grateful, and to show compassion. Thank you for being the reason my loved ones gather together and for allowing us to close the gaps between us, whether they were obtained by distance or stubbornness. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to gorge myself on a home-cooked feast and to steal the last dinner roll from my little brother. Thanks to you, I can look forward to catching up with the family I don’t often get to see, to playing Thanksgiving bingo, and to watching the Thanksgiving Day parade.
It is so easy to hone in on the things that aren’t going my way that I forget about when things go right or the things I’ve been blessed with. Thanks to you, at least once a year I am forced to confront the things I have, people that love me, and all that I have to be grateful for. For me you are a reminder of the importance of love, forgiveness, hope, peace, and gratitude. So thank you. Thank you for being that reminder, for holding us accountable, and for bringing us together.
