So, this is the week we begin to move into what they call the holiday season, with Thanksgiving being the lead in and this year it's even more of a gigantic question mark? What do we have to be Thankful for?
In my opinion, a lot. As each day passes and I look at the sunsets, the falling leaves, the sunshine out my window or even the rain pelting the roof, I'm grateful that I'm still healthy, that my spouse's surgery went well and that he's able to move around without crutches, that my family and that my extended family and friends are also doing okay. But that said, there's so much stress in our lives that it sometimes seems to consume us. There's the stress of being contained into one space - our homes, the stress of not being able to visit our family on anything other than online, the stress of simply not knowing what's next and the stress of not being able to hug your adult children or your grandchildren. I miss being able to call a colleague, a friend, my sister and simply saying, "let's meet for lunch or a cup of coffee". It's these small things that affect my daily being.
So what can you do to eliviate some of this toxic stress? First off acknowledge that it's present and then take a deep breath, and do coffee on Zoom, FaceTime or whatever online site you use. Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes of FaceTime with my daughter, son-in-law, grandson or my son to just bring a smile to my face and then I take a deep cleansing breath and find the space inside me that says this will end and life will return to some sort of normalcy. But even as I write that word I wonder what does that mean?
Our world has changed and not for the better, we have become a much more discordant group of humans. We have changed the way we interact with our neighbors, with our colleagues, with our friends and most of us have become, more hardened in our beliefs to the point where we no longer listen to other opinions, only our own seem to matter. Why have we become the worst of us?
Now is the time for us to take a hard look at who we've become and how we can move back towards finding our serenity. Thanksgiving has always been a time when we are supposed to look back over the past year and give thanks for what matters most in our lives, for me it's simple - what I'm thankful for is being able to find serenity in even the most contentious of times, being able to find my serenity wearing a mask when I go out, finding serenity when I get into round and round arguments with my spouse, with my kids, with my colleagues and with strangers in the grocery store.
After each of these times, I simply close my eyes, or walk outside onto my deck or grab my IPhone to snap a photo of the beauty, stillness and joy that surrounds me.
In times of stress, serenity is what we need most, so close your eyes, take a very very deep breath, and picture the beauty that surrounds you, be it, family, your pet, your comforting bedroom, I've even gone into my walk-in closet for peacefulness, or your deck outside and find your serenity deep within you.
Have a joyous and beautifully serene Thanksgiving.
