It is Thanksgiving Month! The house needs to be prepared for our thanksgiving get-together. Aaliyah and I are short of time with the erratic working hours. It is too difficult to put things and ideas together for the perfect decor. We’ve been wondering and brainstorming for quite some time and yesterday by chance we stumbled upon the perfect way to spruce up the house as well as the hearts of our folks. The ‘Thank You’ Jars activity and the autumn decor fitted in perfectly.
Yesterday we came back from work and saw a bed of fallen leaves in the backyard, the heap of flecked and dried leaves stood in front of our tired forms. Just when I was picking up the broom to get going, Aaliyah cried out excitedly, “Bob, wait and let’s have some fun while we clean the avalanche.”
I had no clue as to what had hit her suddenly. I sat their looking at her call out the neighborhood kids who were playing outside our house.
They barged in hoping to get their usual candy treat. Aaliyah had planned a beautiful activity for all of us. She handed over a marker pen and a bucket to each one of us and said, “Go to the backyard and pick up the leaves, write on the surface the thing you are grateful for, you have an hour and whoever has the maximum number of leaves in their bucket wins a gift along with a treat of creamy pumpkin pie I am preparing right now.”
The kids had a new game now and I grinned with her wisdom. I realized how she had found a perfect way of cleaning the inside out and set an impeccable tone for the Thanksgiving.
It was an awesome exercise and we had a great amount of fun counting the endless blessings while Aaliyah beamed at us from the kitchen window. It filled in a renewed sense of enthusiasm in my heart and I dropped the negative charges I had gathered because of opinions and perceptions of others around me.
Failures translated into lessons. Futile expectations turned into freedom. Criticisms elicited solutions. Sweating and slaving transformed into self-worth. Darkness became a way to appreciate the otherwise insignificant flame. Loneliness turned into an opportunity to make new friends. Betrayal became just an opening of the back door to move on. Diseases spelled out a chance to rest and adopt a better way of living. A wave of love and acceptance swept over all of us. Gratitude indeed is magical, it is the perfect broom to sweep our hearts clean.
As I filled my bucket to the brim I lifted my head and saw garden around me was put in apple-pie order and all our buckets were overflowing along with our hearts. Aaliyah called us inside and we dove into the pudding. We weren’t waiting for being declared as winners as we already felt one. The evening was beautiful and we decorated our walls with a montage of the dry leaves etched with the list of goodness. We created wreath out of the leaves and fall ribbon.
We also kept aside a few plain leaves along with colorful markers and five jars of thanks, each one for a different aspect of being- family, friends, love, work and life for the guests to engage in the unique activity of giving thanks.
The invitations are sent and house is set and we are waiting keenly for the day of togetherness, love, reflection and grace.
From our homes to yours, we wish you a very happy, healthy & wonderful Thanksgiving!
