The timing of my position change at work is actually pretty awesome. I like that it happened right before Thanksgiving.
I make no secret of the fact that I love Halloween, and I get into decorating for the 4th of July too. Thanksgiving is a much quieter, more mellow holiday. It’s not loud and flamboyant like many other holidays, and that is fitting, because I think it’s a time to do more reflecting and feeling than partying.
It’s still very much a celebration, though. One of the biggest mistakes I see so many people around me making is always wanting more, wanting what someone else has, vying for things instead of experiences and people and living. Joy is drained because they are so focused on image, possessions, imagined status.
I am thankful for my new position, because it means my co-workers respect how hard I work and did not want me to leave. After working so long at a company where I was largely taken for granted, it is still amazing to me to be openly appreciated and valued at work.
I am thankful for my husband and our relationship, especially as I cringingly watch others so close to the kids stumbling through toxic relationships and not seeming to realize (or care) that love and friendship cannot possibly grow in a bed of lies and selfishness. These people will never know what it feels like to be peacefully happy and truly loved, since they refuse to love anyone but themselves. I wish the kids did not have to witness this circus (or be embarrassed by it), but I hope they learn from my husband and me that relationships don’t have to be — and shouldn’t be — a charade or a chore or a joke. I wish for all of them to never settle, never latch onto the nearest person like a leech simply because they can’t tolerate their own company.
I am grateful for the roof over our heads and the home we have built together. Even when we lived in a cramped, rented apartment, we always tried to make it feel like a home. Years later, it is still a wonder to me to pull into the driveway and proudly think “This is OURS.” That will never get old to me.
I am grateful for so much. I am even grateful for the difficult people in my life.
Sometimes the only possible purpose a person can offer to anyone is to serve as an example of what to never be, and the lesson has not been lost on me. I am motivated to be a better person since I have seen, up close and personal, what being miserable, vindictive, jealous, and shockingly self-centered does to a person, inside and out…and what it does to those around them. I don’t want any part of that.
Today is my first day in my new position, and fittingly, we are having a Thanksgiving event outside this afternoon. I am looking forward to it.
I am excited about Thanksgiving, excited my new role at work, already excited to go home and tell my husband about my first day, already planning the weekend in my head.
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it is a peaceful, happy, loving day and season.
Sweat & Sparkle 