Front and center this time of year is measure. Recipes used once or twice a year are pulled out and prepared, using the best ingredients and careful measure. Have at it. I hope it tastes just like Grandma's used to. This is the good measure.
But harried from our own over-expectations is the measure we want to step away from. Embedded in our to-do list is our desire for everything to rise above our level of normal and be...somehow wonderful and beyond our ability to create. We want it to look like the magazines or the morning show displays--food, family, dress all coming together in the design of the ultimate event.
Then reality hits, like it always does, and the truth of the week is that extended family will somehow irritate, the overcommitment in our to-do list will be sure to bring us up short--and frustrated, and sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner will be like walking into church on Sunday: suddenly all is well though some serious chaos has just preceded it.
Can we impact this faulty measure of ourselves and our week? What if our main effort this week is to be kind to ourselves first by underscheduling and undercommitting, leaving time for ourselves and others? We make the harried day back into a holiday.
Thanksgiving is waiting on you to give yourself permission to love it...like we did when we were kids. November is getting rid of S.T.U.F.F. (that seriously takes us from freedom). Happy-getting-rid-of-overdoing-it. May your Thanksgiving be giving thanks that you loved yourself in the planning and in that act found more joy in the gathering with others you love.
