It's too bad the holidays only come around once a year, although the older I get the less time there is every year between packing up the Christmas decorations to digging out the platter and electric knife to carve up the Thanksgiving turkey. I love Christmas for all of the nostalgia and memories of my childhood and now living vicariously through my children, although the days of being overjoyed by the magic of all that the Holiday means has waned a bit as they have become teenagers. I can more clearly see the days when I will be looking forward to welcoming my kids home for Christmas than the times we have shared with them as little ones, which is a little sad I suppose but it certainly makes me value each and every holiday season that much more.
The one thing that I don't like about Christmas is the (over) commercialization and bombardment by retailers trying to eek out their end of year sales on a high note. As someone directly tied to the retail industry I completely understand it but wish it wasn't so "in your face." The over development of retail space and retail stores, brick and mortar, or more increasingly online, is another subject for another day. The other thing I don't like about Christmas is that it seems like Thanksgiving has become almost an afterthought. Well, I hope I can change your way of thinking here, as I have changed mine in recent years.
There is nothing better than Thanksgiving day and Thanksgiving weekend. The food, the family, the friends and the day for us all to create a little space to disengage from our hectic schedules. If there is anything better than a Thanksgiving nap after lunch or dinner in this world, I haven't found it yet. Those who know me well know my passion for football and Thanksgiving Day my whole life has meant Dallas Cowboys football. I cannot imagine a last Thursday in November without a Cowboys game. Each of us have our own things that make the day, the weekend and the season special. Whatever those things are, I say we embrace them for all their worth this year.
Life is a funny and precious thing. We never know what lies around the next corner or stage of life and all we have is right now. So instead of worrying about yesterday and fretting about tomorrow I say we give enormously grateful thanks for TODAY - which is all any of us are guaranteed. I am only two years removed from spending Thanksgiving week and the week after in the hospital, unable to eat or drink anything. It was amongst the lowest points in my life but out of that difficulty was born my intense gratitude for what I am about to enjoy this week.
I am thankful for way too many things to even attempt to list them within this post. I tell my friends all the time and it is really true - I am the luckiest guy in the world. My hope for all of us is that we will relish every moment of the day tomorrow - and no, I'm not talking about more cranberry sauce! Really live in each and every moment and take time to reflect and review how blessed and how fortunate we are to be able to be alive in exciting and challenging times like these. To be able to create our futures and determine the paths we will follow. I could go on and on but you get the point.
I could close this post in so many ways but I have chosen to recite a couple of quotes that I think say what I am feeling more eloquently than I ever could. One is a German philosopher who lived several centuries ago and one is one of the most well known U.S. presidents of the 20th century.
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was 'Thank You,' that would suffice." -Meister Eckhardt
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Happy Thanksgiving - and "Thank You" for following my posts.
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