Thanks-Giving Thanks-Receiving

Dear Divas,

“Things haven’t been this bad since the Great Depression.” I stopped in my tracks, taken aback. There they were, my son and his friend, two 8-year-old Tom Joads, playing in the game room, talking about the Great Depression, sensing scarcity and forlorn. Where did they hear this? How is this possible?

Then I realized it is everywhere, this sense of scarcity that has engulfed us.

No doubt this has been a heavy year of upheaval and uncertainty. So many are feeling vulnerable. We fear loss; we lament what more might slip through our fingers.

What’s next?

What’s next is this week’s holiday of Thanks. Thanks-giving, indeed. And I would add, Thanks-receiving.

I am in no way trying to dismiss the fact that the market and the economy and the job market have us discombobulated and confused. There are many many people hurting in ways that’s filtered down, no matter how abstractly, into an 8-year-old’s vocabulary and sense of well-being. For good reasons we experience vacancy, a bit of despair, and a distancing from the at-home-ness of everyday living.

I ask that you pause and embrace this moment as an opportunity, an opening, an odd blessing.

While I certainly cannot predict what the future will bring, I can predict with great certainty that come this Thursday: you will have the chance to be immersed in rich relationships and deep meaning…And that the sense of vulnerability—clearly and magically—reveals the comfort and grounding in the richness we already possess.

Here is my Thankgiving hope:

What I hope you and I can do this year—if only for this day—is not live from a point of scarcity, of fear.

Let’s live beyond feeling there is a lack, an absence.

Let’s live in the beauty of company—family, friends, neighbors, strangers—sitting around a table breaking bread, sharing something to drink, talking and laughing and being with one another

My comfort is in knowing that we will both try. Can you commit to this, for this day, at least?

I will not be fearful.

I will not feel limited by what I don’t have.

I will not lament over what I believe I once had.

I will not chase the insanity of “only if.”

I want us to live in what we have. We have so much

I hope we can live this Thursday in thanks, in presence. I hope we give of ourselves in ways that let us be seen by those we love.

I hope we can live this Thursday receiving, in openness. I hope we accept warmth from those whom we love in ways that let them be seen.

Let’s do this together, regardless of whether you’re here in the States celebrating the holiday or in Europe, Asia, or South Africa. Let’s relish the opportunity to live in bounty.

Let’s feast in the stunning magnificence of the moment. No matter what I don’t have, I have this moment, these friends, my family, and this opportunity to give and receive.

Dear friend, I am going to rely on this mantra to keep me on track: Thanks-giving, Thanks-receiving

Thanks that I have passion to give. Thanks for the passion from you, which I can receive.

Thanks for this day—giving and receiving. These few hours when the world is astoundingly astonishing.

Give thanks and receive thanks.

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In richness and joy and love.

Leanne

Our 2007 Thanksgiving message

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