Crystal Nuding

What a wonderful holiday, Thanksgiving. I hope you all had fantastic meals and good quality time with the people that mean the most to you.

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. This holiday isn’t about spending money and buying a bunch of gifts, it is about appreciating and enjoying what you already have. Spending time in the presence of the family and friends that make our lives beautiful.

This Thanksgiving, as with most, I cooked for my Grandparents – Joycie Bear & Al, my mom, my sister Johanna, partner Dionne and my son, Quentin. We had a local organic meal this year using veggies from my Greenling local basket, and a free range turkey from Richardson Farms (which I ordered through Greenling as well, YAY, YUM and Thank you!)

When I was a little girl, I would wait all year to eat my Joycie Bear’s Thanksgiving dinner and now as an adult, I wait even more anxiously to cook it for her. I learned to cook from her and her mother, my Granny. I felt the absolute love they had for me in every tasty bite. It was a gift I am driven to pay forward to everyone I can. I LOVE to feed people.

My grandmother, Joyce, is the most precious woman in the world. Strong (though she doesn’t see it) and quiet, she has been the rock in our family. She is kind, loving and compassionate, willing to help anyone who needs it and has been a steady beacon of support and love throughout our (at times tumultuous) family history.

I spent my Thanksgiving exactly how I wanted to this year. I was not working for someone else worrying about sales, money or deadlines. I planned the meal, cooked and cleaned my house, all the while bursting with love and appreciation, preparing my home to host my sweet family. I said about a million times, “I’m so happy to be me! Thank you God for putting me here on this earth at this time with these fantastic people.”

I love who I am and where I am and what I’m doing. I appreciate my life so much and the people with which I choose to fill it. Nothing is missing. It’s all here. Perfectly imperfect in every moment.

Do I have everything I’ve ever wanted? No. Is anyone’s life ever completely, 100% exactly what they hope for? Probably not often, but there are always so many things to love and appreciate.

What do we want and why do we want it? These are the only 2 things we should ever concern ourselves with. We could write a novel about what we don’t want or what’s wrong. We can blog about our troubles and issues and tell everyone we know how sick we are or our child is, but that never makes those problems go away. To the contrary, it only spotlights them and adds more energy to the situation, expanding it and making it bigger. We must stop chronicling what we don’t want.

Spend more time thinking about what you have to love and appreciate and less time worrying about what hasn’t shown up yet. Our focus and attention on what we appreciate and want more of will expand and more of that will make it’s way into our reality.

Throughout my past week of giving thanks, I would laugh as a new wave of appreciation came over me; I wondered how many people felt the same as I. How many of us love the food we grew up on and love even more feeding the wonderful people that fed us for so many years.

I give thanks today and everyday for all of our lives. I give thanks for the joy we are free to feel and share. I give thanks for the kind, compassionate love we are capable of cultivating, and that when we extend first to ourselves, can overflow to all others.

I am overflowing today and each new day with love and appreciation for life and everything in it.

Life is good and life is easy. If it’s not for you, it truly can be.

I’m here to help.