By Victoria Lara
Thanksgiving is upon us, Yikes!
It feels like we just celebrated Fourth of July. The holiday season is here now, and it is a great and loving time but it can be a difficult time as well. We need to start planning, shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc… It is when complexity hits us the most; complexity for the weather, dinner, kids, family, relationships, etc…
Holidays are full of hope, love …and stress and complexity.
We live in a very complex time, with a complex schedule and complex relationships. Trying to give and produce our best with so little time, even sometimes with little or no resources- it is exhausting.
Every year the complexity of the holiday season and really any season stress me out. Not having enough to give, to share, to donate, to the people around me, at least as I would like it.
We know that in order to be happy, we need to be open, share and be thankful, but being thankful sometimes seems impossible- instead of trying to fix something or someone I don’t like or understand; I have learned to just accept things and people as they are.
This holiday season I decided I would try something different. I will try to accept the complexity, first in me, then outside of the things that I cannot control or understand. I will not try to understand it at all; I will just try to accept it, love things and people as they are, and be aware of everything and everyone’s beauty.
Being thankful requires awareness of all the beautiful small and big treasures in my life at this present moment even if I don’t get it or if I don’t like it or if I don’t understand it all. It doesn’t matter how much effort I do, how often and how much I cook dinner, or how much gifts I give, if I am not happy.
This thanksgiving I will look around and I will think of all the beautiful and amazing complex people I have in my life. I will try to see how their love, their work, their efforts, their mistakes, their goodness, their passion, their commitment, and their complexity fill my life in a magnificent way that I never would have imagined, and how all the complex challenges I had have and still have, are really blessings in Disguise that have made me who I am today and will continue shape me. Everything is part of my complexity, and this makes my life truly whole and amazing.