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What to Read to Make Sense of Your Thanksgiving
Of course gratitude is on our minds this time of year, but what happens when gratitude collides with other lesser known, but perhaps more fully felt thanksgiving feels?
Colonialism, family, a pandemic, political unrest, pauses from commercialism, Black Friday, gluttony, toxic theology, home-cooking, harvest and hearth celebrations, diversity…all packaged into one event are just a few of the things swirling in our universe.
How can we take the good and the toxic?
When I was a child, I was fed good, nutritious food, had enough clothing, shelter, and most nights my family ate dinner together around the table. My family worked hard to bring my siblings and me up well.
As we grow, we come to realizations about our “emotional diet” that in my experience had been a steady stream of good experiences and self-esteem boosters(we’ll call those mashed potatoes) laced with shame and people-pleasing (we’ll call that gravy, but make it poisonous).
Now as an adult, it takes work and consciousness (with a steady helping of therapy) to realize one CAN have a diet of mashed potatoes with regular, nourishing gravy, even if one does occasionally crave emotional poison when hungry because that’s what we learned went hand in hand with the good things —all the…
