Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. I live in Canada so we had our Thanksgiving well over a month ago. But I have many American friends and clients who are celebrating Thanksgiving with their families today so I’d like to wish them all a Happy Thanksgiving. Many will be spending the day with family and friends and enjoying wonderful meals and maybe a little football. Some will be hard at work on their businesses, but will knock off early. And still others will treat it like any other day and not even take time to pause or reflect on the meaning of Thanksgiving.
What Does Thanksgiving Mean To Me?
I’ve been thinking about what Thanksgiving means to me: good food, time with my nephews, raking the leaves at our Lake home, apple picking… yes all of those things remind me of Thanksgiving but what makes this day any more special than the rest. Apart from the historical significance, what does Thanksgiving mean to me.
I started an experiment this year on the eve of Canadian Thanksgiving: to write down five things for which I am grateful for every day. Since Thanksgiving is a day of giving thanks, it makes sense that you need to know what you’re thankful for before you can truly understand the meaning of Thanksgiving.
So every day since Canadian Thanksgiving, I’ve been writing down five things I’ve been thankful for that day. It’s been an interesting experiment. Some days it was hard to find five things to be thankful for and experience has taught me that those are the days I need to practice gratitude more. It’s really been an eye opener. If there were days my honeyman and I were disagreeing over something, five minutes with my Gratitude Journal changed my perspective on the day and brightened my mood. It works for trouble at the office too. Any challenge or upset could be diminished by looking at it from a different perspective.
An Exercise in Gratitude
Thirty plus days later, am I any closer to figuring out what Thanksgiving means to me? I think I am. It means: remember. Thanksgiving is a day to remember, at least once a year, to be thankful for friends, family and a full plate. We should be thankful for many things in life, the big and the small, every day. And if not every day, at least every Thanksgiving.
I think I’ll keep Thanksgiving with me all through the year by continuing to write in my gratitude journal. How about you? How will you be spending the day?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Deborah, or iDeborah as she’s affectionately known on Twitter, loves to experiment in the kitchen. Some of her best dishes were created by accident! She started this blog to encourage others to get creative in the kitchen… and to record some of her accidental creations so she can enjoy them again! To learn more about
27. November 2009 at 1:53 am
I’m allergic to gluten and finding tasty dishes that are easy to make for the
holidays have been hard to come by. Going off of a recommendation of a vegan
family member, I looking into a site run by Rose Cole (Certified Nutrition
Coach). The site is http://www.RoseCole.com/HolidayCookbook and trust me these
holiday recipes are AMAZING!