Some Mystical Morning Thoughts about Thankfulness & A Photo Story of Thanksgivings past

If you're curious, yes that is also lasagna on my plate and yes my extra Italian family is extra.

Good Morning Steemit!

Blogging in the mornings is becoming one of my favorite habits. Just a little time before the speed violence and momentum of my first coffee kicks in, and my energy is whisked off to chase down the tasks on my to-do list.

I love this mystical part of the morning where I’m still waking up, but I’m extra in tune with my surroundings, sounds, sights, and smells. Everything is a bit blurry around the edges and my mind is quiet. I’ve always envied the folks who feel like this all day. The ones who can happily skip through life without a care in the world, the “laid back” types. But if you don’t have a care in the world, what DO you care about? Nothing? Anything??

I’m at my absolute worst when I stop caring. OR rather, I stop caring when I’m at my absolute worst. Either. Both. I mean this in the empathetic sense, caring for the folks I love and other living creatures, but also caring when it comes to just plain giving a damn! When you care, there’s a lot that’s at stake. There’s an instant and automatic acknowledgment that you’re aligning at least part of your efforts, energy and daily brain and heart power to protecting, preserving or nurturing something else.

Caring takes investment, and any investment comes with the risk of a loss.

So where’s the balance?

I’m not sure. As I’ve said before, I’m awful at balance, (as is clearly manifested in my yoga) but I’m also aware of it, and I’m working on it. As much as I strive to not worry or stress, and to be at peace with the impermanence of all life, and the tiny insignificant role I have to play in the extremely finite time I have on this pretty blue marble, damn do I find myself caring. A LOT.

video chat with mom, grandma and uncle last year haha I love this screen-shot

Today is Thanksgiving in the states. I can easily switch on my pragmatic German brain at this point and talk about how yearly benchmarks don’t really MEAN anything unless you want them too. How culture and family traditions are nothing more than a by-product of the curated version of history we’ve been taught in school, mixed with the intentions of corporations who’s greed depends on the economic spending behaviors certain seasons bring about.

And yes I truly believe that. And yes in a way, I couldn’t care less about Thanksgiving. The day, the food, the stress, any of it… Thanksgiving can stuff-it.

Literally.

Ah but the Duality-of Dayle also dictates, or maybe demands, that I also take a moment to recognize, that, I can ascribe MY own meaning to this day (as with any other day). My family, even with all of it’s flaws and dysfunctions, always tried to impart a moment of thankfulness to us kids between the food and the football and the bustle of the day.

brother in lumberjack mode chopping down a mini tree for Grandma's apartment Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving is about taking a moment to really be aware of what you’ve been blessed with. The year’s “harvest” after 11 months of work. What do we have? Who do we have by our sides to keep us from being completely alone on our journey on this rock? What have we been blessed with, and what can we bless others with?

The beautiful thing about thankfulness is that often times you realize that you’ve got much more than you thought you had while you were working away. For 364 days out of the year, we’re bombarded with messages about what we don’t have and what we COULD have if we just bought into the “dream” a little more, and worked a little harder.

If you take all of the commercialism out of it, Thanksgiving feeds into Christmas SO perfectly. What if every Thanksgiving we actually took physical inventory of the surplus we had, and directed that feeling of thankfulness and converted it into generosity as we roll over to December. Giving with our time, and efforts and our excess STUFF.

If you’re with family today, if you’re running around traveling or prepping and cleaning the house. If you’ve been up since 4 am with the damn turkey, please know I’ve been there, and enjoy your day today. But if you can, take a 10 minute time out (hide in the bathroom if you have to) and take a moment to meditate on what you’re thankful for.

As for me, today’s mantra will be…

"On this day, I choose to let my time spent caring on this plane of existence lead me to quiet streams of thankfulness for what I do have, instead of anxiety about what I don’t. -- Let my abundance be someone else’s blessing."

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<3
Dayleeo

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