Goodness & Gratitude. | November 2021 Love Note
More and more, I have seen the Thanksgiving holiday get squeezed out by stores and on social media for more marketable spending opportunities like Halloween and Christmas with all their decorations, costumes, candy, and gifts to buy.
We all noticed as "Black Friday" started creeping back earlier and earlier into Black Thursday-after-dinner, and stores started decking the halls on November 1st.
For a while, it didn't bother me. I would say that Thanksgiving is my "least favorite" holiday, that I'm not that into football, and "I don't even eat turkey like that anyway." Sometimes I was extra Black with my reasoning, y'all know "we didn't land on Plymouth Rock, the rock landed on us!" And then there's what I felt but didn't say -- that it made me think of my favorite aunts who are no longer with us, and that Thanksgiving 2015 was when we announced our first pregnancy to our parents before we had any idea of what the road ahead would hold for us.
And while those things are all still true, there was something that I was missing. Something that didn't connect for me until the quiet of 2020. It was over dinner with my little family recounting our many blessings that I recognized beauty in the day. That on this day, people all over the country would pause to give thanks. And so this year, I am less concerned with perfecting my recipes and more concerned with responding to God's goodness and grace with sincere gratitude.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 days this, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
In spite of loss, in spite of death, in spite of tears, in spite of attack, in spite of anxious thoughts, in spite of darkness -- I am still so very thankful. And I know that I am not alone in this. Let's bless one another by sharing our gratitude here within this community by sharing what you are grateful for on my Instagram and Facebook, where I am holding space for you, and God willing by spreading it to others. The IN SPITE OF IT ALL we are still here. Let's flood the feeds with thankfulness, y'all.
Love,
Maaden