11/23/15, Thanksgiving
Hi Everyone,
Wow….how did it get to be the holidays so soon? It was January the last time I looked, and as it does every year, it whizzed by. One minute the year is beginning, you’re planning what you’ll do, and suddenly it’s spring and then summer, and then summer ends and it’s fall. A bunch of kids show up on Halloween, and Zap, it’s Thanksgiving. In five minutes it will be Christmas, you put the lights on the tree, admire it for a minute….then someone is singing Auld Lang Syne, and then you start all over again. So here we are, and here comes Thanksgiving.
To me, Thanksgiving is about gratitude and about friends. Although it is theoretically about family, it is a holiday to welcome friends who have nowhere else to go and might be alone, and to be thankful together. I always think about that phrase from the Bible, “God places the solitary in families”. It’s nice to be the place where people come, and to host it, and also nice to go to one’s friends if one is alone. And this is a good time of year for me to practice what I preach, and remember to be grateful for my family, my friends, (you my readers, and the people I work with), and the many blessings I have. I mean it, and it sounds good, but holidays also get hectic, life gets pressured and stressful, real life doesn’t stop on the holidays, and it’s easy to get worn out, stressed out, and sometimes even upset, and forget to be grateful. Sometimes the problems seem bigger than the blessings.
People in families worry about family battles and family members they don’t get along with. People without families are sad because they’re alone. People who are cooking the turkey and feel like they’re cooking for an army feel put upon (“Why do I always have to do it?”), People who have no turkey, no family, few friends and maybe nowhere to go feel deprived. It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong instead of what’s right. Very few people have a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving, where the turkey is golden, the kids all behave, and the relatives are well behaved and adorable. People are stressed and short tempered over the holidays. There’s a lot to do and take care of.
No one’s holidays are perfect or very few. Sometimes big things are wrong, or only small ones. We remember those who are no longer with us and miss them more acutely.
My older children who are married usually go to their in laws, although one of my older married children will be with us this year, which is rare. My five younger children are coming home, but they have busy lives and stressful jobs, it’s a hassle to come home from far away, their lives aren’t perfect either, but we will be grateful to be together. Gratitude will be very important for all of us, to remember that we are lucky to have each other, no matter what our situations are at the moment. I’m very grateful that my kids are coming home for the holiday. And I know it will be busy and crazy, we will miss my son Nick who is no longer with us, and I’ll just be happy to have my kids home.
And if it gets crazy or too hectic, or things don’t work out perfectly, or if there are hassles at the last minute, I’m going to take a deep breath, and remind myself of how blessed I am, how thankful I am, and how very, very many blessings I have in my life, starting with my kids. I hope your Thanksgiving is blessed and wonderful, your relatives well behaved, your friends kind. And if it starts to get crazy, try to be grateful, even for a minute…..we all have something to be grateful for wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, and whatever our circumstances. I send you all my love, and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
love, Danielle
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Hi Danielle. I hope you and your family have a very special and blessed Thanksgiving this year. I too think that when you are grateful for your blessings, no matter what lack or difficulties you face, life always seems better and brighter. Watching the news makes me realize to treasure every moment we have with loved ones. We, here in Canada, are putting out our Christmas lights and getting started with Christmas shopping already! I have put a little beginning effort toward that holiday by buying family Christmas cards and our dog’s toy and treats. Again, I hope for you, your family and friends, a warm gathering filled with love,laughter and sweet memories. And tasty treats!
Thank You Danielle! Happy Thanksgiving! You are so right, sometimes we all act as though the problems outweigh the blessings. Not that the “problems” are always so awful, it’s just exhausting at times when many things creep upon us at once! But they often turn out to be a blessing in disguise, in some form or other! Happy Holidays to all!
Love,
Lorraine
Hello Danielle !
Very difficult to intervene after Janine and Lorraine! I will try but if it please be lenient, in my defense I am only a man!
Janine: “. … That I too think you are grateful for When your blessings, no matter what you face Difficulties Lack gold, life
always Seems better and brighter,” puts reminds Pythagoras’s Golden Verses. Suffering is the genius of the crucible. The
trials of life richer.
Lorraine: “Not that the” problems “! Are always so awful, it’s just exhausting at times When Many Things creep upon us at
once Purpose They Often turn out to be a blessing in disguise, In Some form or other” speaks to you in third degree. She knows a lot, Lorraine, and tries to make you discover the happiness hidden behind the appearance of your current and temporary problems. Thank you very much, Lorraine!
As you know, in Europe we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, so you learn a lot and I had to work a little me!
God asks us to show our gratitude by doing. He took us two loved ones. What did you do to show him your gratitude for giving you the strength to overcome this enormous challenge? We know what you did! And I, what have I been doing? Was I aware of the chance he gave me that night to stay alive. If I am elected, for what? Good around me.
Specifically, on the occasion of Thanksgiving, he asks us to thank Him for the blessings that we have been able to receive in the past year. This answers the intimate secret of each! You, you know …
Or was revealed faith and we are aware, constantly, of God’s gifts are needed or we must recall dates like this.
I think that recognition is a way to be happy and i think that we have to learn it.
As you love quotes, I suggest you these two:
“Men have called love Eros, because he has wings; the Gods have called Pteros, because he has the power to give.” Platon.
“A man is never so great as when he kneels to help a child.” Pythagore.
By the way, tomorrow I’m alone, as you invite me, I will come!
Hi Danielle, Love your book god bless Happy Thank Giving I have read so many of your book right now Power Play love it, your work is great. Thank you!
Sincerely, Mercedes
Sincerely, Mercedes
Danielle,
Enjoyed your Thanksgiving message on gratitude.
Thank you for being a light in the darkness for so many people.
I see you have two new books coming soon. They sound wonderful.
“Blue” moved me to the core.
Truth, Wisdom, Love and Sincerity, to ALL Mankind.
Rob Scott
Chicago, IL
p.s
Blue is #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel at her finest, a probing and emotionally gripping story of dark secrets revealed, second chances, and the power of love and courage to overcome life’s greatest challenges.
Can’t wait!
TWLS,
Rob
Rob Scott is at the top of the info, it’s true!
For “Blue”, see:
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213531/blue-by-danielle-steel/9780345531056/
Thanks.
But in this text, there are other important issues that do not leave me indifferent:
– Your awareness, suddenly, of time passing very quickly, almost a year has passed since a lightning strike (which was really nothing ephemeral as one might think!)(1)
– Your life stressful and exhausting but very satisfied (2)
– Friendship
– The chance to have the other (3)
– Dissatisfaction with a temporary situation
– The art of being happy by applying the principle of comparison to most deprived
– There is the recovery of the words “anger” and “all my love” that provide all the happiness of being read
– This loneliness that seems to suit you, and apparently for the time in which your children, books and friends give you what you want from life