We're all thankful for the big stuff - family, friends, our health, etc. What's something "uniquely you" that you're grateful for?
November 22, 2023 | Sparkle Wednesday
Tomorrow is the big feast - Thanksgiving. When I was a little kid, I learned the “Pilgrims and Indians” version of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday. I loved spending the day with my family, listening to "Turkey Confidential," cooking all day, not to mention obsessing about what I would cook and pawing through stacks of cooking magazines a couple of weeks before the big day.
Only over the past few years did I learn about The National Day of Mourning and really consider how complicated the Thanksgiving holiday is for some folks.
Sean Sherman, founder and CEO of The Sioux Chef, Owamni, and the 2023 recipient of The Julia Child Award, describes Thanksgiving with his grandma and grandpa (it sounds like mine - canned California black olives and sweet potatoes with marshmallows) and pitches a better way to celebrate the holiday. Read the article here or checkout the excerpt below.
Many of my indigenous brothers and sisters refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving, protesting the whitewashing of the horrors our ancestors went through, and I don’t blame them. But I have not abandoned the holiday. I have just changed how I practice it.
The thing is, we do not need the poisonous “pilgrims and Indians” narrative. We do not need that illusion of past unity to actually unite people today. Instead, we can focus simply on values that apply to everybody: togetherness, generosity and gratitude. And we can make the day about what everybody wants to talk and think about anyway: the food.
People may not realize it, but what every person in this country shares, and the very history of this nation, has been in front of us the whole time. Most of our Thanksgiving recipes are made with indigenous foods: turkey, corn, beans, pumpkins, maple, wild rice and the like. We should embrace this.
I wholeheartedly agree!
Now to this week’s question.
We're all thankful for the big stuff - family, friends, our health, etc. What's something "uniquely you" that you're grateful for?
What’s uniquely me. I’m a “nester.” I love being in my nest by myself but I love hosting people in my nest. We just hosted Thanksgiving here. It was joyful chaos. I’m grateful for the opportunity.
Small, unique things? When I think of what I'm grateful for, nothing feels small. I guess that's the effect of feeling gratitude. Picking one, I'd have to say my daily 7:00 AM morning walks with Ziggy and Lisa. :-)