Our Big Fat Italian Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving might be the most American of holidays but I'll tell you - the Italian-Americans know how to do the Thanksgiving food up right.  Incredible food is one thing we enjoy, but of course more than anything is being in the company of those we love and in the complete and utter cliche of the season, appreciating all we have.

I know, how creative I am to write a post about Thankfulness on Thanksgiving; but hey.  It's just a no brainer.  But, as I try to compose this post all I keep thinking about is that I really don't need a specific day to remind me of all for which I am thankful.  

I don't need to sit around the table eating turkey to be reminded of this any more than I need to witness traumas and disasters in the world or have my own life shatter beyond recognition to remind me what to be thankful for with every breath I take.

Each day when my eyes open I say a prayer of thanks and ask for a small parcel of grace to make it through the day.  A parcel the size of a sugar cube, that's all I need.  Because even in being thankful and appreciative life is still not without struggle and stress with things that range from a nuisance to angst, from worrisome to fear, from annoying to heartbreaking.

I chose appreciation.  Every day I chose it, but it's easy to lapse, to stray, to drift.  I have to remind myself to chose it and live it even when other ways of feeling tug and battle for my very soul.  I choose it because the days of having this choice might be numbered.  I chose it because my girls are growing older and with that, things will surely change.  They will never be so inextricably in love with me as they are right now.

I chose it because CB's life will likely not be a long one and this reality is the last thought I carry into sleep and the source of the butterflies in my stomach when I walk into her room each morning.

I choose appreciation because I know what it felt like to live under an iron curtain of profound unhappiness and that because of my choices I dwell in happiness now. I'm aware of how fragile this state can be so I am forever thankful, grateful, appreciative.

I don't need to make my "30 Days of Thanks" list.  I live and breathe and sing them every single solitary day.  I see them reflected back to me in the eyes of those I love.  They fill my entire heart 365 days of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving from my brood to yours.

Hope your Thanksgiving was a goofy as ours!