THANKSGIVING MANDATORY GRATITUDE

 Mandatory gratitude is a good thing.  The discipline of a stance of gratitude is a good thing.  In fact, gratitude is "in".  It's been researched and found to help with the immune system, aging well, depression, losing weight, and bringing abundance to life! 

I support gratitude and I love Thanksgiving--my favorite holiday by far.
Food, family, food, thanks, food, time together, food, tradition, food--what's not to like?

I am interested in how we get numb to our own blessings on a daily basis.
Our heat, our electricity, our friends, our daily abilities become an accepted and expected part of our lives, not the gift that they actually are.  Not every one has them.

And I wonder about how to expand our gratitude to the things and people that hurt us for all the richness and lessons learned from the discomfort.  That's where the rubber of gratitude meets the road of bad bumps.

From a metaphysical point of view there is nothing better than starting and ending your day with gratitude, daily thanks.  Here's to Thanksgiving for
putting a habitual time out for gratitude into our lives every year.  An American tradition that could use expanding.  

MORE SPUR OF THE MOMENT OR MORE FLOW OF THE MOMENT??

Actually, I want both but I have my life organized to have neither.
Or NOT organized to have both!

I love spur of the moment ideas and actions. They provide zest, vitality, surprise, a "why not?" attitude.  Playing hooky is heaven.  Being just a little outrageous makes spur of the moment even better.  Planning to go to a nice dinner a week ahead of time isn't half as good as doing it on the spur of the moment. It doesn't have to be a big grandiose plan.  In fact it has to be NO plan just a sudden decision to do something you want to do NOW. I bought a stove this week in 10 minutes when I went to the store to buy a timer!!!
I had a quick cup of coffee with my daughter when we both needed to be somewhere else and were running late.   My husband and I impulsively got a new cat (dumb, swore not to, didn't wrestle with the decision) on the spur of the moment.  Big or little, It's invigorating.

Flow of the moment is a different animal from spur of the moment.
It happens when there is time enough to allow something to emerge.
There is the same quality of doing something you hadn't planned to that gives pleasure but  there is a sense of flow and timelessness. I was reading a cookbook and I moved into a soup making marathon with no hurry and no fuss.
Three soups in an hour was easy, satisfying, fun. No missteps.  On a Sunday afternoon, my granddaughter took a nap easily, my daughter and I played cards and moved into cooking dinner together.  None of this was planned.
It just happened. That's what I mean by flow of the moment. It feels like there is enough time--a rare occurence for me.

Am I nuts or is your experience of time like mine?  I like most of what I do or have to do. But my life is lived in fragmented chunks of over commitment to a schedule, a calendar. We all live this way which is why allowing for spur of the moment activities or flowing into a nice moment is difficult. Too much planned time.  

I'm thinking of going off the grid of the calendar every other week to allow a more organic use of my time.  Of course, I'd have to coordinate with you to
go with me. There's the dilemma, right there.  We are all over booked and the serendipitous likes freedom.

RELIEF OR HIGH ANXIETY???

I can mess up any operating system in a minute. I do have computer anxiety.
I took a class long ago with my direct reports at work. They can validate this story. The teacher said, "Don't worry, you can't do any damage."  Well, I did. Who knows how? The teacher didn't. Kept saying, "I don't believe you did this!!"

Needless to say, I have a little sense of Jinx when it comes to technology.
And I have "learned incompetence" from having had good support people around me at work, where I just yelled, "Help".  Often and loud. 

I got in a "Let's create order!" frame of mind this last week-end. Not good.
I don't do order so well.  I'm a clear thinker in chaos, but should not approach
minute ordering. I do well with "glumps".

I decide to clean up my computer and iPad. (So go your closets, so go your iPad and computer)  Let's say I had many many many many emails to trash.
Many, many. I turned on the cooking channel and began my clean-up.
I'll never share how many hours passed!

But, for one glorious moment I had ZERO emails. I didn't mean to delete the last 100 so if I haven't responded to you, now you know why. (See what i mean?) But it felt great.  A little odd, like I had no friends or importance in the world but exciting. No burden, no guilt, no clutter.  I did the same with my iPad (not as easy).  I felt like i was on helium. 

But then, no email appeared for a day and a half. Bye, bye freedom.  Hello anxiety.  What did I miss?  Who had I offended? What great surprise did i
pass by? I had pressed too many random keys which is my approach to technology. So I pressed random buttons again and there were 200 plus emails immediately in front of me. I felt safer. And I felt chased. How to stay ahead of the onslaught? 

Food for thought.  Still chewing on it.
I bet you are too.

I'M IN A SUGAR HIGH/COMA!!

And I like it. Toosie Pop glory. From Halloween!!
I remember when candy was just fun and you had it whenever you could.
Yes, you had to brush your teeth, but you didn't think it would wreck your life and hormones.  

There was some kind of deal when I went to the movies in grade school that you could get six candy bars for the price of five.  Peppermint Patties that were the size of a hockey puck, (Yes, all candy bars are smaller) Chuckles that defined you as a "red" fan or a "black" fan which means you saved those for last.  A huge Charms sucker that left the roof of your mouth raw. A Peanuts Planters bar that you had to suck into submission.  A Butterfinger bar that crumbled dry and then formed into cement in your teeth. Buttery good cement. And saved for last and the end of the movie IF you had good pacing was the Heath Bar, which was a bar not a chip like it is today. 

There was an art to making each goodie last as long as possible.
You either bit each ridge of the Chuckle off one by one or held it in your mouth til it was slippery and had to be swallowed.  It would be so awful if you suddenly gobbled or bit too soon.  

Now I worry about sugar, grains, meat, pesticide on fruits, lifeless veggies,
bad ol dairy.  I am nostalgic for Jello and Pop-Up biscuits and mushroom soup used on everything for sauce. No one was fat. They were heavy set.  

Hell with it.  I'm going to make a retro dinner.
Iceberg lettuce with Russian Dressing--mayo, ketchup, sweet pickle relish
Or Perfection salad--shredded cabbage and carrots in orange Jello.
Canned corned beef hash as filling for Pop-Up pin wheel rolls with (what else?
mushroom soup gravy.
Canned green beans with tons of butter.
And--Butterscotch Ripple ice cream for desert.
Or canned Mandarin oranges with miniature marshmallows and shredded coconut and Cool Whip!  

What will my grandchildren yearn for?
Kale chips?
Fruit gel?
Omnipresent granola? (the word makes me gag)
Hummus!!!
Gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, SIN free treats.

I made everyone in a small Starbucks laugh long and hard when I ordered and said, "Please give me a vanilla latte and hold everything good"  Everyone knew I meant sugar free, caffein free, dairy free pretend latte!!