Save ThankingsGiving~ Stop With All The Stuff-ing!

Outraged! Outraged I tell you!!!

I spent my holiday breaks in college waitressing at a country club which included serving Thanksgiving dinners instead of partaking in the turkey and trimmings. I didn't mind horribly because I still got to see families, even if they weren't my own, enjoying a dinner together. And yes the time-and-a-half pay made me thankful for sure. It's a given that some folks will always work on Thanksgiving to help serve others whether it be at restaurants or movie theaters; but this year stores including Macy's, JC Penneys, and Target are opening on Thanksgiving to offer discounted shopping- WTH?!!!

Macy's I expected more from you... you owned the goodwill of this holiday and are now throwing it away. For goodness sake what would giant Snoopy say?

To open at 8am, then 6am, then 3am was crazy enough but at least is was technically after Thanksgiving. But shopping on Thanksgiving should consist of running out to get more stuffing not more stuff!

We as a country take one day a year to be thankful for what we already have and now folks want to spend the day getting more stuff that they don't already need. To me this is crazy and a sign we have tainted my favorite holiday.

Let's put aside that most Americans are in more debt then we can handle and focus on the fact that if we can't spend time enjoying the company of friends and family we can at least not clutter our lives with more stuff we do not need. Discounted or not. Gifts or not.

We spend a fortune renting storage spaces, upsizing our housing, working to buy the latest all through the year. This is the one day we should stop stuffing our lives with stuff and give thanks for the people and lives we have. And if we have situations were family and friends are not nearby then it is a great day to help serve the less fortunate and remember how lucky we are.

Sorry for the sermon-- but boy every time Christmas promoting gets earlier in the year I get annoyed; each time I see people, and now kids, focused more on their devices then each other my heart sinks; I refuse to willingly sit silent while stuff takes over ThanksGiving!

I beg of you all, don't give in: make yourself a Thanksgiving List and please, please put down the shopping list!

Thankful For It ALL!

November 19th: World Toilet Day

Every year I spend the days before Thanksgiving making my ThanksGiving List, where I note some specifics of what I want to thank my friends for during my traditional Thanksgiving Calls to them on Thursday morning. It takes some pre-thought to decide exactly what I want to say but it's easy and such a pleasure to spend the time thinking about all that I am thankful for in those I love. 

Gratitude for all the good and love in our life is easy; not everyone takes the time but if put on the spot each of us can without much effort think of at least a few things to be thankful for in our lives. The harder, more deeper, and dare I say more joyful exercise is to practice being thankful for it all. Everything in our lives! 

When I read about World Toilet Day it had a profound impact on me and upped my gratitude exponentially. Did you know that 2.5 BILLION people live without a toilet and proper sanitation?! World Toilet Day along with Charity: Water and Water.Org do great jobs drawing attention to the fact that there are BILLIONS of people living without the most basic of basics. 

When I have a bad day, feel something's lacking, or am just not fully present to the joys of my day, I stop myself and for one brief moment give thanks if I have nothing else in life... I have water and a toilet. To think there are so many that don't humbles me and makes anything I have to complain about seem small and trivial. So this Thanksgiving I'm not just thankful for the big things, I'm thankful for the smallest, simplist things too.

To be thankful for it all we need to evaluate any upset in our lives in reverse. I was annoyed earlier in the month about how friends were fighting about the election then I thought how awesome it is to live in a country we get to debate these kind of topics out loud, how great it is folks care enough to fight about what's important to them, and lucky I am to have passionate people in my life. Irritated I am getting a cold this week, I was reminded how lucky I am to be healthy most of time and how fortunate I was to be able to be there for people I loved when they were ill.

Only when we can be grateful for all life has in store for us are we really living in gratitude. Sure it takes some effort to find gratitude in the annoyances, disappointments, and suffering in life but like a friend who had gone almost two weeks without power said after the storm- at least we were safe and we were together. 

There are some shitty things that happen in life- things that can almost destroy us... but if we're here after we get knocked down we have, if nothing else, another day, hour, minute to be thankful for. 

I'm hoping you have the Happiest Thanksgiving ever and am wishing you gratitude for wherever you are, whatever you have, the strength to handle whatever you're dealing with and the joy to appreciate all that life brings next :)