Lean In and Listen

 

Give Thanks

“To listen is to lean in softly with a willingness to be changed by what you hear.”

Mark Nepo

          Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in America. As a celebration, it is the best and worst of what we do. Best because we usually spend it with family, and worst because we usually spend it wringing our hands over what we didn’t do right. It’s very hard to enjoy the great feast of Thanksgiving when you are fretting about the turkey being undercooked or too dry? Or whether you put enough brown sugar in the sweet potatoes. Suddenly, we realize that we shouldn’t have seated Aunt Patty next to Uncle John—they hate each other—but now it’s too late to gracefully switch the seats. The great American holiday feast is overshadowed by our need for perfection and as always, by too much food. We cook too much, eat too much, drink too much, feel like trash the next day, and then beat ourselves up for weeks over the weight we gained.

          This year, as people gather, perhaps we should change our focus away from food and toward one another. We could, as Mark Nepo says, lean in and listen; engage our hearts as well as our ears, and cultivate an attitude of simple gratitude. Things will go wrong—expect it—and know that no one cares. What people care about is being together with the people they love and hearing the stories about what has happened in their lives during the past couple of years.

We will remember the Covid years, when we could not gather for Thanksgiving, as a time great loss—because they have been. Nevertheless, tomorrow, we will celebrate. We will be our best selves; here, among our brothers and sisters of heart and soul.

I wish for each of you a Happy Thanksgiving, and a heart full of gratitude. Tomorrow, lean in. Listen.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane