Giving Thanks

I'm sure Thanksgiving is a tumultuous time for all of us, what with the family and food and all the issues that come with those two loaded topics. I love this time of year, not only because of the time I get off school, but because I get to spend time with my family and get to cook massive amounts of my favorite kinds of food. But, like so many, I am conflicted. To me, it seems that this holiday, which originated as a harvest festival of sorts, has devolved into one of the most celebrated consumer gluts of all time. It is a holiday that urges us to not only eat, but also to shop; the day after Thanksgiving is the single biggest shopping day of the year. I love my family and I love food, but I'm not quite sure about this holiday.

I admit that my love-hate relationship with T-day has a large portion of guilt measured out like a spoonful of week-old mashed potatoes. I have a hard time celebrating the day that the pilgrims had their huge feast giving thanks for surviving and thriving in the New World. Why? Well, while this holiday is symbolic of the comraderie between the pilgrims and the Native Americans, we all know what happened after that. I believe genocide is not an exaggerated term here. So it feels false to me to celebrate this partnership, when it seems to me that my ancestors took advantage of the Native Americans and then betrayed that friendship. Or at least hospitality. And, yeah, I had some ancestors there, so it's kinda personal to me.

Guilt, gluttony and family dynamics. Fun.

In the Five Element style of acupuncture, it seems to me that these core issues of the holiday revolve around the element of Earth. Earth is all about giving and recieving, nourishing, sympathy, mothering, and the idea of home. There's more, obviously. It also has to do with obsession, smothering, need for sympathy from others, the victim complex, over eating or denial of nourishment, cyclical patterns that are unconsciously perpetuated, overthinking. The attitude or virtue that can cut through the cyclical sympathy of Earth is simply.... gratitude. There is a fantastic scene in the movie "Joe Vs. the Volcano", where Joe is in the middle of the ocean on a tiny raft and out of the black sea, an impossibly full moon rises over him. He stands on his raft, dehydrated and delirious, arms stretched overhead towards the hugely glowing orb, and says, "thank you for my life. I had no idea how big... Thank you for my life". In the presence of such beauty that it stops us in our tracks, it is both humbling and centering. Gratitute opens us to the blessings of the present moment. That is how I feel in the presence of my family. So in this season of Earth-type pitfalls for me, I am grateful for my family, friends and partner, whom I love without end. I am grateful for my life.

I find it interesting that the very pitfalls of this holiday hold within it the essence of it's grace. So let us give thanks.