"Thanksgiving"...So many things to be thankful for...how do I remain true to myself and what I'm feeling, but still remain thankful?

1. When I hear the word "Thanksgiving", I automatically find myself migrating to thoughts of family, health, and the freedom we have in the United States. My husband & I experienced a lovely trip north by auto this past week where I captured this photo from the car. As we drove by this flag flying near a business, I grabbed my camera quickly and fortunately the moving snap turned out exactly as I'd hoped it would.

We are still experiencing the awesome visit with family and friends. The "present" has a way of revisiting earlier days when the laughter begins to seep from the walls of the room while the stories unfold. It was evident that we all just felt so happy listening to my husband and his childhood friends that he spent most of his childhood days with sharing the fond stories of days gone by. It's so awesome to visit a part of my husband's childhood by listening to the crowd tell their versions of the same stories he's often shared with me. Their excitement is just as deep as his has always been. These men become little boys again as they reach back in time to reconnect, laugh, and still love like brothers. Hugs and "I love you's" permeate the room as they leave the home. "Call me next year, we'll come again!" is the resounding comment as they exit the front door...and we hope and pray for another fond reunion such as this. This is "Thanksgiving".

The traditional phone greetings from our children that aren't with us, the well wishes that we will have a great Thanksgiving Day with our time here in CT. This is "Thanksgiving". We sit down to our Turkey Dinner that my mother-in-law and I have slaved over, this is "Thanksgiving". We ate till we couldn't eat any more, and I fell asleep at 7pm, this is "Thanksgiving". Well, it's what we "know" Thanksgiving to be, right? The smell of the turkey, the great stuffing, the desserts...it's what we have experienced and has become tradition for most of us.

Thanksgiving = To be thankful for something. To "Give" something back since we've been so blessed. "CC's" interpretation of what defines "Thanksgiving".

No matter what life has unfolded to us, we still have so much to be thankful for. I think the hardest thing for all of us... is how we struggle to "learn" to find a "healthy" balance of allowing ourselves to be true to our "emotions" in whatever we are going through in life. We need to allow ourselves the "privilege" of grieving our losses, whatever they may be. But, not allowing those losses to take us as captors and identify us for the rest of our lives. There is a favorite scripture my Great Grandmother loved that seems to fit what I'm trying to share...

Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 4 "There is a right time for everything...a time to cry, a time to laugh, a time to grieve, a time to dance."

Scripture gives us the "right" perspective. Life goes on...and we must search within ourselves and ask the Lord to "help" us to let go of the things that maybe we've held on too tightly that has kept us as captors of our past painful events; whether divorce, death, or betrayal. I remember when my Dad passed away that I felt if I ever laughed again, it would somehow dishonor him. How could I ever be "OK" with laughter again...my Dad had died. I felt the same way when my 27 year old brother was tragically killed 27 years ago. For much of my inner spirit, I held on to the pain, and I kept the darkness and sadness inside because I thought I "ought" to...in order to honor them. How interesting that we find ourselves over the years adapting to this type of "coping" skill, these "unwritten" codes that we live by.

I'm grateful that through much prayer, love, and counseling, I've been set "FREE" from these old coping mechanisms that I had lived most of my life with. And, because I'm now "aware" of how I'm wired, I can detect when I begin to regress and return to my "old" way of thinking. I have to remind myself of the scripture I shared in today's blog. There is time to cry, to laugh, to grieve, to dance...and to GIVE THANKS! May today we all find something to GIVE, even if just a smile to a stranger.

Staying in the Day...and remaining Thankful with YOU! ~CC