It’s Thanksgiving Time & I’ve Gone Blank…!

Well, that’s not necessarily true. I haven’t blogged in a while because I thought I hadn’t had anything of value to share. When I sit down at my computer, my mind would just whirl with a matrix of thoughts, none that made any sense to me. However, when I was away from my posting apparatus, fabulous thoughts would swirl—usually in the shower (how many times has that happened to you??)
My thoughts are still whirling. There’s a lot going on in my mind. The upcoming Thanksgiving holiday has me thinking about when to put the turkey in the oven; how to arrange the tables to sit 17 comfortably; will the dog need to be bathed on the day of, who’s going to wash my car for me today before my appointment at noon…and on and on.
Thanksgiving is such a warm celebration of the founding of our country; of family, friends, the harvest and having a bounty of food to share with all. The sound of having people I care about in my home warms my soul. It is because of that, and because families are constantly changing and growing, that our Thursday Thanksgiving celebration will be held on the day after, on Friday.
When the realization that celebrating on Thursday would have a table setting only for five, and all the efforts of making a memorable meal would be the same as if for 20, I asked my husband what his thoughts were if we were to move our celebration to the next day. His immediate response was “Thanksgiving is on a Thursday!” Naturally, after I explained to him that our home would be filled with so many more on Friday, he agreed.
However, the most prevalent thought lingers: “will Thanksgiving still feel like Thanksgiving if we are celebrating it on Friday, rather than Thursday?” What’s your thought?

The I in Family

Life has so many ups and downs, twists and turns.  Our world, the economy, politics -, peace (or lack thereof) is a constant reminder of how we each have to strategize our daily lives just to keep moving forward.  It is a blissful thing when we have family we can rely on to support us, as we support them.

When your ‘family’ is made up of blood relatives, in-laws, step-family, or incredibly close friends that would do ‘anything’ for you, a person can actually wallow in the goodness of relations.

But what happens when family turns their back and you are left in what seems a world of emptiness and confusion?  What happens when your perception of those members who you consider your ‘family’ do not return the feelings?  Being wounded is not a comfortable situation and perhaps doesn’t do well for someone’s self-esteem, self-worth or confidence.  All of a sudden, the ‘warm fuzzies’ are gone.

So, what does a person do with those emotions of ”lack of value”?  It can be hard to get over the pain of this kind of loss. Here are my suggestions: 

Make a list as to who you know you are.  All of those great attributes that make up the person you are, are incredibly important.  Seeing them in black and white is equally important, so start that list! 

Have you had a chance to ‘sleep on it’ before you’ve made any moves or decisions? 

Can you see the issue from the other side? Does it make sense to you? 

Have you thought about if the action really did take away your value as the person you are, or does that negativity actually belong to the one who caused you the pain of loss?

If the initial action has caused a string of further actions, creating different issues, it’s very important to keep these separate and have very clear and separate thoughts.  Mounting them together will only be an exaggeration of the true picture.

 One thing is for certain; the most important person in your life is you.  As long as you can maintain your own value for yourself, you’ve won!  Remember, no one can ever take you away from you.  So with that in mind, having a very clear understanding of who you are, all the great things you bring into not only other people’s lives, but yours– your own true value—you become your own best friend.  And when it’s all said and done, we are, after all, the only ones that can truly take care of ourselves.