Tag: Gratitude

Posted on by Fern Brady - No Comments on On Thanksgiving Holidays

On Thanksgiving Holidays

Thanksgiving Day is a uniquely American holiday. It is a celebration of the success of a colony in the new world. The interesting thing about it is that the colony’s survival was due to the relationships they built with the natives of the land they were taking over. The colonists invited the natives to join them in a meal to celebrate that with the joint effort, they had all benefited from working together.

Today, we use this day to gather around a table and eat a ton of delicious food with our family members. In modern times, Friendsgiving has become popular. With so much division in families and the empowerment of people to remove toxic individuals from their lives — whether they are blood related or otherwise — many have come to use Thanksgiving Day as a chance to gather round and eat with friends instead.

However you choose to celebrate it, this time of year, and this holiday in particular, asks us to take a moment and look at our lives with gratitude. It seeks to shift our perspective from what we lack or haven’t yet accomplished, to what we have and what we have already done. It is a wonderful opportunity to take stock in your life and see all the things that are going well, count your blessings, and perhaps bring to the forefront of your mind the things that are good. Putting aside for at least a day all the things that are wrong in the world, your relationships, in your life, this day asks us to search for that which is good, that which is working, and to be grateful for it.

In many ways, Thanksgiving is a moment for us to pause and breath. We gather together with those who are our ‘family’. Some may be blood related, and others maybe the people who have joined us on our life’s trajectory. Whatever the case, we have at least one day to stop and be happy in the midst of the mad rush of go, go, go, our society imposes on us.

As we move past this day and into the hectic time of the winter holiday season, don’t forget to take those things you noted were good about your life with you. Don’t leave the gratitude behind. Let’s keep looking at what is working well, examine and fix what isn’t, but always be mindful of the blessings we have. Oh, and don’t forget to build relationships. Blood or otherwise, we are social animals and now more than ever we must find our tribe and support each other.

Posted on by Melanie Ormand - No Comments on Spring Trips: As Simple as A‑B-C‑D

Spring Trips: As Simple as A‑B-C‑D

A random burst of spring decluttering (aka: anything-but-writing-That-Scene) led to rediscovering this relic.

From a bygone era, it’s an engraved sterling silver baby cup. Look closely and you’ll recognize the name.

When I first opened the box, years of accumulated tarnish hid the baby’s identity. Extended elbow grease reminded me of two things: 1) why I’d stored away this boxed cup, and 2) why I do not use, collect, and will-never-in-any-way amass pretty, shiny, high-maintenance metal things.

Even so, the oddest experience unfolded as I admired the newly-cleaned silver piece. Words dropped in—A Baby’s Cup of Dreams. As simple as A‑B-C‑D.

Messages from other places. That happens sometimes. It’s a weird writer, woo-woo thing.

When the voice speaks, I listen. Then launch.

To my writing space, I ran. My fingers grabbed specific tokens, all stand-ins for my authorial adventure. I moved intuitively. No second-guessing permitted.

Items included a miniature Christmas ornament, Novelist pin, a Glimmer Train magazine, a TRHOF pin, a tiny silver shell engraved “Touch Hearts,” a gratitude blessing circle, and a “Let’s Go on a Road Trip” sticker.

A few days later, my dear friend Pat Clark (a fellow Road Broad who you read here last summer) gifted me a most groovy Road Bag.

That two-lane highway is only part of the bag’s glory. Check out those colors! Every character in my novel is represented.

Ahem, and uh, no. Most writers don’t color their characters. I’m not every writer. I am my mother’s daughter, my own person as she was herself. 

Such an attitude matters in this world of color-by-other’s-numbers.

What also matters is recognizing the road signs that arise on the journey.

I see signs daily, each echoing springtime on my four mile walks. When the ancient baby cup resurfaced, I recognized the sign of something old, granted in a new season.

The zipper bag landed as a sign from an old friend, a woman I’ve known since 1984 as journalist and now, fellow writer. I recognized her gift as something new for how I’ve long traveled: on many roads.

Arriving home, I realized the new bag needed old supplies. Not mere symbols of meaning but useful tools to bring dreams to life through renewed storytelling.

Journals.

Pens.

A closet dive reminded me I’m well-stocked. Embarrassingly so.

There’s nothing I need.

I’m ready.

I’m supplied.

A‑B-C‑D is going places this spring season, journeying into my field of dreams.

How about you?