How to lessen the suffering when you're meant to be grateful...

It ain't easy. 🦃

Stuff you should know first:

• My online classes are 50% off for only a little while longer. (Click here for little kids and here for the tweens) Use the code BDAY to get the deal!

• I’m having my first surgery to remove my breasts in early December…so no coaching until January! If you want to get on the list, click here for a Discovery Call.

• This November playlist from my new friend Johanna is AHMAYZINGGG. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

• These gloves are a good price and cuuuute.

• My daughter purchased this potent vitamin A for me in Paris, and it’s awesome. And gentle for most skin!

• I combine this moisturizer with this oil after a bath, and my skin is so happy. It also makes the oil last longer 😉

• This is my hand cream at night. It’s lovely.

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I know Thanksgiving can be a fraught time for many people, and I get it. Family is complicated. There’s nothing like getting people together who are connected by blood (and, sometimes not much else) to say, “let’s be gracious and grateful and lovely during this one fraught meal.” The expectations are high.

I just so happened to grow up going to my Aunt Liz’s house for every Thanksgiving. She made all of the food, we brought pies and, looking back, she and my cousins worked their asses off for all of us. And while I’m sure choice words were shared before we arrived, every Thanksgiving was joyful for me. Even in my surliest teen years, even when I hated everyone and everything, I loved going to my aunt’s house.

(This is a picture at that house with my own family in 2010?. Yes, I look like my mom).

My aunt was overjoyed to see us, there would be lengthy gratitude prayers that would send us into giggles, we would play board games, and hide the clucking rubber chicken (screaming hot and cold at the poor soul as they wandered the house looking for it). My uncle (who passed in June) would be cracking jokes the whole time, and would often bring a gag gift that would delight everyone. There were walks around the neighborhood, as well as lounging in my cousin’s room, listening to Duran Duran and The Cure. No matter what drama was happening at school or with my friends, I was relaxed at Thanksgiving. I felt like myself.

Notice what I haven’t mentioned in my memories:

• If the food was “gourmet” or special (it was always delicious).

• If the place settings were just right, pricey or fancy (her tables were beautiful but not over the top).

• If the drinks were fancy or special (every Thanksgiving was dry, and there would often be a random stranger there from AA who needed a warm and loving place to eat and rest).

• What we wore or how we presented (nice enough in jeans and tops).

• Perfect behavior/high standards (the laughter was loud and raucous).

• Strict routines (yes, dinner was served at a certain hour, but the day wasn’t planned within an inch of its life).

Take from that what you will; I don’t need to spell it out. Life is hard enough right now…how can you make it easier for yourself this Thanksgiving? Suffering abounds…if it isn’t your family suffering, it’s your neighbor, so let’s not add to it with outsized expectations of ourselves and others.

How can you be kinder to everyone in your life?

Questions to ask yourself to relieve some suffering (especially with the kiddos):