Everyone loves turkey…
No doubt about that. And football, and stuffing and pie. Definitely pie. But we also know, or at least I hope, that Thanksgiving is about way more than all that.
Maybe you don’t get along great with your family. Or you have different politics, different world-views. Maybe you feel like a black sheep because of your sexuality or your hair color, or because you really really want to workout before turkey dinner. They might not get that. They might not get you.
But family is family…
And whether you’re The Brady Bunch or Breaking Bad, it’s important to appreciate yours for all it’s flaws and all it’s beauty.
And family is so much more than those people you lived with for 18 years before college. Family can be your freshman-year roommate who you still text every day. Family can be the group of guys you’ve been playing Fantasy Football with for over a decade. Family can be the people you workout with.
So look around and be thankful for your family, in all their wonderful, wacky and varied forms. And then, do something a little bit more challenging and look inside yourself. Find something inside that you are thankful for. Maybe you can feel good about your generosity, and giving back this year. Maybe you can be thankful for the work ethic that was passed down to you from your grandparents. Or the left hook that you perfected in class last week.
That nagging internal critic will inevitably show up…
Yea, but you missed the company’s community service outing because you were hungover. Or you’re not a good person because you forgot Grandma’s birthday. Listen to that voice, but don’t let it control your self-worth. Let it drive you to create more, connect more, do more. Don’t let it stifle you.
Sometimes the best (and most difficult) thing to do, is just to be nice to ourselves.
So look around, and pick three things you’re thankful for. You can write it down for yourself, or leave it in the comments below. Because once we can appreciate the things that surround us, the building blocks of our lives, we have better
access to understand the internal parts of ourselves: the parts we need to work on, the parts that we are thankful for.
-Elena Carpi
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