Winter is not my favourite time of year. I don’t suffer from SAD, beyond the general feelings that we all get from the drop in sunlight, and the reduction in Serotonin production, common to us all. I just do not like feeling cold. Tee shirt, shorts and a pair of sandals and I’m fine. Rie likes the cold dark nights, log fires and soft sofas which all lead to a preparation for Christmas and “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” I find the idea of Christmas lunch on a warm beach very attractive.
So, at this time of year, I make a special effort to focus on the positive and, to be honest, just how lucky are we? Take a look around you. If you are able to read this blog on a phone or computer, whether you own it or not, you are in a very wealthy situation, something to be thankful for. And that becomes my focus: “What am I thankful for?” There is plenty; I am a very privileged person, living in a lovely situation, with a lovely wife and a lovely family. I enjoy my work, I enjoy my life. I am thankful. So when I wake, I log into the consciousness cloud with feelings of gratitude.
Thanksgiving in the USA is called Harvest Festival in the UK. For the early settlers in the States, Thanksgiving was a matter of life or death, being able to survive. In the UK, it meant that the year’s crops were gathered in, the barns were full and we knew that we would survive another winter.
Even accepting the current recession and the economic crisis that the news tells me is ever present, the local barn, or supermarket, is full of food. Food that has arrived from all over the world.
So on Thanksgiving (well it will be Friday in reality), I will cook a meal and sit down with my family and celebrate our wonderful world of abundance and in turn we will each give thanks.
What are you thankful for this year?
Take care,
Sean x
