Sometimes, when P talks to me about things, he will slip into Jargon – and because I more enjoy the “sound” of the voice – particularly his, I just let him talk – even though I don’t know what the letters he is spewing stand for or mean.

Every field, job, game, area of society has TLA – three letter acronym that represent “something” – we are a society of efficiency – and that means using TLA to keep things fast and simple.

They are … “brief” ways of sharing a joint meaning for a concept, word or set of instructions.

We have holidays in the US – I mean most countries have them – and there are “shared concepts” but we don’t generally use TLA for these holidays. We just have “concepts” that we all share, visions of what is “supposed” to be for a particular holiday.

None of these things are “necessary” – the holiday will happen with or without our perceptions about whats supposed to happen.

Like Valentines day is about “people we love” … sharing love.

The upcoming one – Thanksgiving – is well – we generally think of it as “getting together” “having a feast” – and sharing love and warmth with those we love. …. What does it look like this year? Is this a year where we morph a tradition?

2020 is an interesting year. Its a year of … “how do we do X, while still maintaining Y and avoiding Z” – we have gotten alot better about this all year. Somethings will remain the same, but many things will shift. There will be a “new normal”

Spending time with family is important. Sharing food and blessings is important. Where is the balance?

All of life is balance. There is a time for caution and there is a time for perspective, and there is also a time to shift the rules to make the game more enjoyable. I don’t really believe that this is that time.

The cautions we are all taking are important. They will be important for – “some time” in the future. I don’t honestly know how long, but my instinct tells me more than six more months…. that’s a minimum – part of me can see this going on ad infinitum. The more data that shows up about this invader, the more cautious I feel it is necessary to become. The more long term ramifications of being exposed, or working thru the illness, show me even more truth in the need for caution.

I’m left with the little kid parts of me going “but why, but why” … when I think about NOT spending this thanksgiving with all of my family. My family – well family and to be honest friends I’ve adopted as family – is big. My house is, well for some parts of the world its big, but for this part of the world its not. The number of people I can safely have social distancing inside and on the porch is alot more limited then the amount of family that I have….

Suffice to say, this difficulty/challenge is not unique to me – I’m certain many families and friends as well as many others within my family – are feeling the struggle with this challenge.

On the plus side, being able to socially distance, or remote/zoom chat for the gathering – means people are still alive, healthy, and safe. These are important things, and being able to chat with the ones I loved, is something I am very very thankful for…

Energy doesn’t recognize distance, so I suppose it means no matter where people are, we will be close, and sharing in each others beautiful energy.

I remember my first thanksgiving away from home – with my “new” husband, years ago. It was hard. This year will be hard. Hard doesn’t mean bad, it just somehow means growth and development. We learn, we evolve – we become better and stronger.

I am thankful for this year of challenge to become a better version of myself.