Before You Cut the Turkey, Stop and Give Thanks

Every night before I go to sleep, I take a few minutes to think about the things that I am thankful for.  While many of the things that I am grateful for are self-reflective, there are so many people who I can consciously say that I can’t imagine my life without.  I used to be too afraid to tell people how important they were to me, because I thought that maybe it was socially unacceptable or would make me feel too vulnerable.  But everyone in this world is both a giver and a taker – we change people’s lives and they change our lives in return.  After being on the other side of things, witnessing the small gestures that people have made to show me that I am an important part of their lives, I now realize the importance of overcoming your internal hesitancies to show people that you really do care.

In the midst of the daily craziness, I know as well as anyone how easy it is to get caught up in the chaos – chasing those dreams that keep growing, as the world around us keeps changing, and inevitably we get pulled into the riptide – further and further, until we begin to lose sight of land altogether.  While I’ve increasingly been trying to take enough momentary pauses to maintain my perspective, Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to pause a little longer, and to think a little harder about the people who mean the most to us.  At one point or another, we all have found ourselves sitting and wondering if our daily actions and relationships are making a difference to others, or if they actually mean anything at all.  Instead of making the people who are most important to you continue to ‘guess and check’ what they really mean to you, use this Thanksgiving as an opportunity to tell them.

When the fear of vulnerability begins to eat away at you, just enough that you convince yourself that a few words won’t change anything – take a step back, and remind yourself that they will.  On the hardest of days, when you feel like nothing is falling into place and your vision is consumed by every obstacle imaginable, it is those words that we’re often too afraid to say that hold us together, and the people who unconditionally love and care about us who make us realize that it’s going to be okay. 

So while this holiday has become a whirlwind of monster floats, a time to break out the fine china, and an opportunity to get a head start on our holiday shopping – don’t forget to give thanks.  Tell the people who mean the most to you why you’re so thankful to have them in your life, and that you can’t imagine your life without them in it.  Even though it may be hard sometimes, find the courage within yourself to turn your thoughts into words, and your words into actions – because to you what might only be a few words, might be the very words that someone needed to hear.  A few words might be enough to pick someone up on their down days, and to give them the courage to do the same for others.  So in the hope that this will inspire some of you to search within yourself to identify the things that you are most thankful for, here’s my list of thanks – the many aspects of my life that make my world go round…

I’m thankful for my family – for my parents who constantly challenge me to be a better mentor for my siblings and a stronger woman, for my younger siblings who constantly remind me of the small beauties in life, and for my grandparents who remind me never to give up on the people you believe in. I’m thankful for my friends – for the many people who answer the phone when I urgently need to talk to them about who knows what at two in the morning, who celebrate the quirkiest parts of who I am, and who are unconditionally there supporting me in the pursuit of my craziest dreams.  I’m thankful for my health – for the opportunity to wake up each morning and have another day to live my life.  I’m thankful for my mentors, who constantly challenge me to not only aim for good but for great, who help me to mitigate my weaknesses, and who inspire me to believe in others and to always believe in myself. I’m thankful for the freedom to choose – for the opportunity to carve out my own path, even if it might mean stumbling down the wrong path on more occasions than one.  I’m thankful for my education – for the opportunity to attend one of the top universities in the world, and for the chance to work with some of the most intelligent students and professors I have ever come across. I’m thankful for my love of learning – for the inherent curiosity that drives me to explore the questions that I’m passionate about, to identify new problems, and to build new solutions. I’m thankful for stability – for the roof over my head, for a warm bed to sleep in, and for food on the table.  I’m thankful for all of the opportunities that I’ve been given, and for the luck that has come my way.  And most of all, I’m thankful for my craziest dreams, for my deepest desires, and for the constant fire that burns within, pushing me to be a stronger and more genuine person each and every day.