Celebrating The Season

Thanksgiving celebration is a huge deal across the pond for Americans and l had the privilege of joining some friends for a massive thanksgiving celebration with many others. It was a feast for the eyes and the hall décor was fitting as well.

On each table there were little beautiful cards to write what we were all thankful for and at the end of the room was a row of tables filled with food with influences from America, Brazil, South Africa, Caribbean and Nigeria amongst others.

As we were tidying up at the end of the night, I noticed most of us had forgotten to write on our little card as we got carried away with the company and amazing spread of food and drinks. It was a wonderful event and as I left, I thought about my beautiful unwritten card and everything I was grateful for.

I had so much to be thankful for that I could have filled all the cards in the room but I completely forgot about the card and the reason why we were all there – to celebrate and appreciate life through a spirit of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are celebrations that often miss the heart of and reasons for the season as we mostly get side-tracked by the hypes of the season – the food, shopping, drinking, entertaining and gift giving.

Now that we are in between thanksgiving and Christmas, I am dedicating this post to remind us of the importance of being present in the lead up to the new year.

Be Present

Be present enough to notice and appreciate what is happening around you and respond to them. Rather than just seeing the falling leaves of autumn, appreciate the warm hues of autumn colours, the rotten leaves should remind us of how they feed the soil for the next season. There is some snow today and although it’s freezing, I focus on how the whiteness of the snow reflects the sun so beautifully to bring much needed light to the dark days.

This year my Christmas cactus plant flowered early bringing some much needed colour indoors and it looks like the second one will flower just in time for Christmas and I am thankful for both and the friend who gave them to me.

Don’t lose sight of what matters

We need to hold on to the reasons for each season we go through. Thanksgiving is about being with family and friends, the joys of being together, food, fun and some family drama. As the name implies, thanksgiving is about giving thanks for all those things and being grateful through and for them all.

This looks like being grateful for being a taxi service, non-stop cooking, playing family games with overenthusiastic people, resolving conflicts and mending relationships, keeping the little ones safe as they make a racket, and dealing with filled kitchen sinks and burgeoning laundry washing.

If you focus on the effort it takes to make these events happen, you only see the work and feel the tiredness at the end. If you focus on the reason, you will find yourself doing everything joyfully and when you put your aching feet up, all you still feel is gratitude to be able to do that for your loved ones.

Look over the fence

Many times we are so preoccupied with our own plans for the season that we forget to notice what else is going on around us. There are neighbours we can pop round to visit, elderly people around us or in care homes who would be happy to see a friendly face, and people living on their own who might be delighted to join you for a simple dinner.

There are people spending their first Christmas after the loss of a loved one who might appreciate a call or a card at this time. And of course there are the homeless and people sleeping rough in extreme weather.

To really celebrate this season, any acts of kindness towards the vulnerable will do good for them and us as we experience the joys of stepping outside of ourselves. Some of the people I love to think about during this season are the essential workers – the fire service, police and hospital staff who have to work to support the rest of us whilst we enjoy the season.

As we continue to say happy holidays, happy thanksgiving and prepare to say Merry Christmas and happy new year, take a moment to think about how you can bring happiness to those who are not usually on your radar. Thanks for reading and sharing this post with others and don’t forget to subscribe.