THANKS, AND GIVING
By Jane Dividio-Gagliardo
Well, happy belated Thanksgiving everyone. Hope you all were able to celebrate Thanksgiving this year safely and joyfully. Which brings me to my blog talk for this week. This time of year, I always see people talking about what they are grateful for and how much love they have in their hearts for family, friends and so on. Then when January 3rd rolls around… poof it’s gone. The feeling of gratitude, Thanks and Giving goes right out of freaking window. Gone until next fall. Lol. Now I’m just as guilty of that as everyone else. By the time January gets here, well, as Ben Franklin once said, “Guests and holidays are like fish, after five days it starts to stink.” Lol. Maybe not the best analogy, but you get the picture.
During this year 2020 not only are we dealing with the regular pressures of the holiday season, added to the regular stressors, a damn Pandemic, protests, riots, a crazy election and no going to the freaking Macy’s day Thanksgiving parade, WTF!!!! It’s too much. Right? Well yes. I’m finding that the more I reach out to other people, in general, we are all facing the same challenges more so then ever. What to do; what to do???? So I wanted to share my survival tips and strategies with you: Take this time to really get to know YOURSELF. As scary as that may be, what have you got to lose by trying it? Looking into our own self is not just scary but it reveals a lot of what people may have been trying to tell us for a very long time. To slow down, to look around you and to count your blessings. These are all an important part of the process of living.
I live alone. And during this pandemic I have found myself dealing with loneliness like never before. But dealing with it is very different now because I can’t run out to see a movie or meet up with my girlfriends or go and walk around at the mall. But I can go outside, take a walk and view the beauty and magic of nature or a walk on Main Street, masked, of course. I can FaceTime my grandchildren or children. I can see their faces. I can call my friends and I pray, a lot. But when I see the food lines because people are hungry, I Thank God I’m not in that line. When I hear of people facing eviction, I Thank God I have a roof over my head. When I see people standing on the corner holding “I’m hungry signs,” I’m able to go to Burger King and buy them a “Number 1” and give it to them. But most of all, when I read all of your comments of great fullness and your own ability to see all the good around you it gives me hope and my sense of feeling encouraged heightens. It adds more life to my life. But most of all it gives me a greater sense of peace.
If nothing else, dealing with such unprecedented issues and times, we must hold on to the true spirit of the holidays and look forward to what our lives will be after all the current craziness is over. Plan on that right now. Start now planning the big reunion when we can all be together and HUG once again. And let’s plan to hug a lot. For the moment, though, we need to keep our family and ourselves safe. So I leave you with this quote: “An open wound is where the light can enter.” (Unknown)
Until next week… Stay Safe. Stay Strong. Stay Fearless.
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