The Happiness of Settling the Day
Another grand holiday comes to a close here in the States, our annual celebration of Thanksgiving. In its traditional form, it’s a time when we gather together with family to share an enormous turkey dinner, complete with side dishes galore and pumpkin pie for desert, to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and football games on TV, and in keeping with the theme of the day, to give thanks for our blessings.
The variations on the meal and activities are countless, of course. While millions travel to be with family—often crossing hundreds of miles–other millions spend the day with friends, and still others spend the day alone. And as is the case with most big holidays, the reality often doesn’t meet the expectations.
Old family patterns ignite squabbles and irritations. Or you were too exhausted from your travels to really enjoy the gathering. If you end up making do with friends when you really wanted to go home, or spent the day alone, a little hollowness may be filling your heart.
Still, for most of us, regardless of where we spent the day, it was graced with at least a few moments of genuine gratitude as we turned our attention to the things for which we truly are thankful. And the luckiest among us felt thankful all day long.
However your day unfolded, and whether you celebrated it as a holiday or not, a beautiful way to bring it to a close, to settle it in glowing peace, is to perform a loving kindness meditation at its end.
This gentle ritual allows you to wrap yourself and everyone else in thoughts of well-being, acceptance and unconditional love. You can find a brief description of it here, and beautiful, more detailed instructions here. Give yourself the gift of it. It makes of every day a day of thanksgiving and peace.
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