The Thanksgiving holiday has long been a tough one for me.
I’m not huge into holidays anyway, I’ve just never been able to get on board. Even on my own birthday, I don’t look at it as a celebration.
I look upon holidays more as a time of reflection. I feel more quiet and internal, less “eat 5,000 calories and pass out”. Maybe I just don’t get it. I think I really lost the plot with Thanksgiving.
So much of life is just marking time, and to some degree holidays are meant to be some of those markers. Time to pause and reflect and internalize the meaning of whatever holiday we are currently observing.
I have real issues with the Thanksgiving holiday and its roots, and thusly for me it’s a pretty easy downhill turn into that place of disinterest. I just don’t wish to celebrate the things that holiday represents, it’s not celebration-worthy. To me.
And it’s named “Thanksgiving”. Ugh. I just try not to think too much about it. The day passes and that’s that.
I know, I’m such a Negative Nancy.
Then I moved to Mexico, and would live in Puerto Vallarta for almost a year before we celebrated Thanksgiving. I was quite surprised to learn that we do so here.
Then I learned it’s pretty much just here in Vallarta (and other places with large pockets of Americans) that celebrate. It is definitely not a Mexican holiday and never was. So they just interpret it the best they can, restaurants have their version of a Thanksgiving dinner, turkeys are roasted and gravy is served and we all “give thanks” just like at home.
Again: I love the sentiment. What a wonderful thing to meditate upon… the idea of giving thanks.
It’s just that the way we go about it doesn’t work for me. To me we collectively just don’t seem that grateful. There is a widespread energy of greed, anger and distrust on most days, and then we magically put that away for a day so we can mainline some Tryptophan and “give thanks”.
Here in Mexico they call it “Dia de Accion de Gracias”, Day of Action of Thanks. There is something deliberate about the wording that I love. Thanks-giving, is to me not the same thing (or at least over the years it has evolved into not the same thing) as the Action of Thanks.
In one, I am feeling thankful. I’m “giving thanks” for whatever I have. I have all the special feels on this, our special day of thanks.
In the other, I am actively demonstrating my thanks.
I like the idea of actively demonstrating gratitude.
Of ecstatically performing an action of love for you.
Being present in this space together because we actively value each other.
Deliberately, out loud, giving my time and my energy out of care for others… and receiving that same time and energy as care from others.
That makes sense to me, Accion de Gracias.
Way more sense than a huge, gluttonous feast.
Today, I hope you feel actively supported and appreciated in this world.
I hope you are blessed with enough in life that you can actively support and appreciate those around you.
I hope you have the space in your heart to deliberately, out loud, offer your time and energy in a show of appreciation to those around you.
I hope you have a really lovely day and I hope it’s not just all about you and how “blessed” you are.
Show someone what a blessing they are.
Happy Day of Action of Thanks.
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