Defying Black Friday

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is supposed to be a frenzy of stampeding crowds, combatant shoppers sending elbows flying and tug of wars over the very last burping baby doll.

I think I'll devote one more day to gratitude.

It's not because I'm above commercialism, desire or the holiday fray. (After all, a rather hefty portion of this blog is devoted to items I covet and you might covet too!) But yesterday, as our house was full of the hubbub and commotion that comes with preparing a holiday feast for 22 people, and I stood sweating over the last minute gravy, my heart swelled with contentment at the thought that all these people were gathered to celebrate abundance, bounty and excess.

It's easy to see abundance in the puritanical light those Pilgrims hauled across the ocean. We see our indulgences as coming at someone else's expense. We think we have to hoard up the good in our lives and cling to it lest it evaporate and disappear forever. But this isn't really the nature of the universe.

Celebrating bounty, reveling in it, sharing it with each other- encourages more of it! It fills us up and overflows out of our hearts into someone else's life.

So a celebration like Thanksgiving is a perfect way to seize the moment. It goes like this:

Stop that routine in it's tracks.

Put everything aside.

Come together with people you love.

Reflect on your life.

Notice it's beauty.

Notice what is precious in it.

Notice it's pleasures.

Notice it's blessings.

Notice the richness in the details.

Pause.

Find a deep, still place inside yourself.

Watch it fill with humble thanks.

Share that gratitude with someone else.

Repeat whenever you think of it.

Love,

Becky

P.S) Here is the blessing we read before our Thanksgiving Feast.