Happy Thanksgiving

To you and yours...

It’s Thanksgiving for many people, so this week is a break.

Even if it is not Thanksgiving for you, the spirit of the idea can still be something to keep in mind, and consider.

What in your life has gone well for you?

What makes you happy?

Who are you glad to have around?

The world has a tendency to be rather unforgiving much of our lives, and I have noticed that it seems to overwhelm the things that went well. I have also noticed that people allow their negative emotions to taint the things that they should be thankful for.

This is your opportunity to knock that crap off.

I get it. Things can be hard, but in everyday interactions, even when things appear dark, there is always a brightness that can be sought out. It won’t fix the situation, but this about mindset. Sometimes, you have to look for good things. Sometimes you have to decide that, despite how something makes you feel about something, you are grateful for the lessons that a situation has brought to bear on your life.

This is a reminder that gratitude is a choice, and those that consistently choose to ignore it, are those that create a great deal of their own misery. So, let’s not do that, and go with the theme of the day. This goes for people as well. You might think, Athena, you’re a psychopath, so do not lecture me about something you cannot feel.

I don’t feel gratitude, you’re correct about that. Gratitude is action, and it is about how I decide I will behave and how I decide to consider those around me. If I can do it, you can too. While I know that there are many people in the world that do not deserve gratitude for their existence. Everyone has family members that they don’t like, or coworkers, or what have you, there are many that do deserve it, and you might be taking them for granted. So, stop that.

However, also, you have to have gratitude for yourself as well. Likely, you have a body that functions. Maybe not well, but you can still walk for yourself, not get lost driving five minutes to the grocery store, can you think your way out of a problem, can you still make decisions for yourself? I would think so, at least with the last one. You’re reading a psychopath’s Substack, and I have my doubts that there is some carer out there thinking, you know? Mrs. Johnson would really enjoy the writings of a psychopath. I’ll just give her my tablet while I clean the house.

We all have things that we can do that we should be grateful for. Something that I have noticed about the holidays is that people get themselves wrapped into a knot about a lot of different aspects regarding them. The food, the family, the decorations, the traffic, the people, the songs, the lack of songs, dry turkey, lumpy gravy, the weather, you name it, there seem to be a lot of things that make people crazy this time of year. This too is a choice.

I understand that it can be stressful, but many of these issues are things you either simply have to take the time to ensure that you do whatever it is you are undertaking, you do it to the best of your ability, as well as dismissing those things that you have no control over, and not allowing them to affect you emotionally. You can’t make the rain go away, you can’t make Bill’s decorations less obnoxious, you can do something about the ice… seriously, salt your damn walkway. This is not the ice capades. If you are going to someone else’s house for dinner, and they suck at cooking, eat ahead of time enough that you aren’t hungry while you push your food around your plate in an attempt to make it resemble something appetizing.

If you hate the fact that you’re expected to go to whatever get together with said terrible cooking, do your own dinner for your family on a different day, so you can make those good memories without being the person in the family that says what everyone is thinking, but no one wants to say out loud and be the problem causer. There are ways to make this time of year one to enjoy, one to be thankful for, and one that you won’t dread if that’s the way you view it now.

If not, and you’re someone that loves this time of year, (y'all know who you are, you’ve had your Christmas tree up since June) then you do you. If other people don’t like it, nuts to them. Be the most obnoxious Christmas person ever, because I will tell you, even if you are that person that has been humming Jingle Bells for four months already, I know someone that is the most obnoxious Christmas person ever. When I say that, I mean that his Significant Other has made it very clear.

“If I see one bell, one second before Thanksgiving day is over, that beel will ring for you, forever, because it will be buried with you in the lovely casket that I put you.”

After that? The entire house explodes with all things Christmas. It’s… a lot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s gorgeous, but damn, the dude really really likes Christmas. Thanksgiving he spends being thankful and present, happy as can be, but I knor for a fact he eyes every surface of the house differently that entire day, and at midnight the bell tolls for he.

Anyway, this is a long post for one that was supposed to basically say, “you’re not getting a post this week, and also say Happy Thanksgiving”, but my wordy ass brain doesn’t always knnow when to shut up, so, here we are.

Happy Thanksgiving. Next week Jess can either answer more of your questions, or I can do a writing reaction to Kanika Batra videos. Let me know what you guys want. I am going to go write that other post now, because why not? Have a great wekk, have good food, it’s one of the things that really can be the best part of life, and see you next week.