A Day To Practice Gratitude

It's Thanksgiving today in the US, and with that comes lots of different opinions.

There are those who love the tradition, and see it not so much about celebrating the 1st Thanksgiving, but of bringing together family and friends for a day of gratitude.

There are also those who protest Thanksgiving, and view it with contempt and derision, due to the inevitable slaughter and/or forced removal of the native people from their land after that 1st Thanksgiving.

I honor the second, and live into the 1st.

In France, today isn't a holiday.

Instead, we have 21 people coming to our house on Saturday.

Every year, my husband dreads my ideas for how we can lean into the gratitude part of the tradition.

This year we are building a gratitude tree.

Using painter's tape, I will be creating a tree on the wall of our entry, with bare branches.

In a basket next to the door will be a collection of blank leaves, lovingly water-colored by myself (and hopefully my daughter).

Each person will be invited to take as many leaves as they want, to write out a moment or moments of gratitude from the year, which they will then place on the tree.
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By the end of our meal together, our tree will no longer have bare branches, but will be filled with the leaves of everyone's gratitude.

I am so excited to bring this idea to fruition.
My husband, not so much.

How do you practice gratitude? (Whether on Thanksgiving or not?)

Originally posted on LinkedIn with comments.

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