Happy Thanksgiving 2021!

By Skywing Knights // November 25, 2021

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It’s crazy how time flies, doesn’t it? I can’t believe it’s Thanksgiving and that Christmas is right around the corner. What are your family traditions? This evening, my extended family and I got together and brought all 7 of our dogs together. What a hoot! But also the best thing ever. I loved every minute of it.

We managed to get 5 out of 7 of them in the picture! ^^;

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I feel like it’s been a really hectic year on my end. And while I know I accomplished a lot (I bought my first house y’all!), I still oddly feel as though I didn’t do enough. In that regard, I’m greedy in that I want to accomplish more. Or maybe it’s more like I feel as though I should have accomplished more. Do you do that? Do you beat up on yourself sometimes because you think ‘Oh I could have done this if I had really put my mind to it’?

Perhaps in that way, it’s really a good thing that Thanksgiving comes at the end of the year. It forces me to think about everything I do have in life and be appreciative. I won’t lie, sometimes I find that hard. I think I don’t deserve to enjoy blessings if I haven’t met all of my goals. In that way, I suppose it’s a habit of mine to flog myself. So while Thanksgiving is about gratitude, I think it can also be a time of giving ourselves grace. The grace to forgive ourselves. The grace to acknowledge the accomplishments we do have. And also, the grace to accept that we’re doing okay and growing each and every day.

What I’m Grateful for This Thanksgiving:

Every year, we’re asked what we’re grateful for at the dinner table. I thought of five things this year:

This beautiful world
Church
Family and friends
My job
My ability to be self-sufficient.

Thinking about it more now, I should have likely added Air Conditioning to the list, haha. But in all seriousness, I think if I could only add one more thing to that list, it would be that I’m grateful for the gift of agency.

Isn’t it incredible what the human mind is capable of? That it’s not tied to some evolutionary compulsion that some animals have? We’re able to all live our lives in a variety of ways that are unique and special to us. And not only that, but we are capable of learning and growing into better people. Stronger people, kinder people.

How absolutely incredible is that?

It’s for that reason I think that I push myself as hard as I do. I want to make the most out of every second of every day. As a result, I sometimes end up micro-managing myself to the point of exhaustion…

Thank the heavens for those who thought to make Thanksgiving a federal holiday. Because sometimes, I need that. I need a day to pause. To stop worrying about what’s going on, what I should be doing, where I’m going. And instead, I’m reminded to look back at the path I’ve trod and see how far I’ve come and all I have been granted in life. Best of all, I get to pause and reflect with my family and friends, who, no matter what I do, I could never repay my Heavenly Father for granting me the opportunity to know them.