Thanksgiving Post 1 of 2: The Philosophical

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I like that it has the delicious food and family togetherness of Christmas, without the obligatory gift-exchanging. 

But I always find the week before Thanksgiving sort of sad. 

I think it started when I was in college.  See, I went to a public university in California, which as you know is a very large state.  Therefore, some people who went to my college came from places that were like 14 hours away, but were still in California.  Those people were always trying to maximize their Thanksgiving breaks by taking, like, a whole week off for Thanksgiving.  However, my family lived only two hours away, so I usually stayed at school until Wednesday afternoon and then went home. 

There was something that felt strange about that week before Thanksgiving.  Like, some people were gone, in on some party that I wasn't invited to.  The week felt neither here nor there.

These days, it seems about half the world considers the entire week of Thanksgiving a holiday, while the rest of the world proceeds as normal.  Some stuff is closed, but you're still trying to go on about the week as normal, and it just seems too quiet. 

This is all to say that on Wednesday, I was in sort of a weird place emotionally.  It didn't help that I was dealing with some sort of illness that's just one of those things where you feel crappy and off for one day, and then it disappears. 

But I had things to do!  I had to get the shopping done and the pies made and my eyebrows waxed and blah blah blah blah blabitty blah. 

The place where I get my eyebrows waxed is next to a Panera.  On my way out of the parking lot, I saw two young girls run up to each other from far away and engage in the most enthusiastic reunion hug.  It seemed these were two high school friends back from their first year away at their respective colleges. 

It was the sweetest thing.  And because I'm an overthinker, it turned into A Moment for me. 

I thought of all the stuff that reunion meant.  About rites of passage and coming home and a truly exciting time in a person's life.  I thought about how, throughout the course of college, the balance of your friends begins to shift from childhood friends to college friends, and about how the balance in your sense of home and identity shift too.  So much to figure out.  So many questions. 

And I thought about what a wonderful time college and early adulthood are, and how I wouldn't have wanted to skip those phases of life, but how mostly I'm just glad they're over.  Which is exactly the same thing I could say about all the subsequent phases, such as my first professional job, new parenthood, etc., etc., etc. 

That's when I knew what I was thankful for.  I'm thankful for being right here, in this moment, at this point of my life.  And all the cliches-for-a-reason go along with that: the thankfulness for family, shelter, adequate food, and health.  I'm thankful for being at a place where I am secure, and happy, and stable. 

Lately I have been focused more on the future than the present.  What should I do?  What will happen?  How will it work out if I do This? Or That? 

But really?  Things are right as they should be right now.  And I am thankful in the present.