I love holidays like Thanksgiving and Valentines Day as they are food holidays..but holidays with open ended messages. Thanks and Love. Wow. How can you miss with that? Plus, for me, they force me out of my corner, out of the retail headset and to think about those big messages and how they relate to my own life and living. I give thanks that I have so much to love from the people in my life, to the things I do (down to the granular day to days) to the experiences (mundane to extrordinary) and feel that this is truly a gift--these loves are what define me as a person and as the little spirit that inhabits this earth for the short time we do. The loves and how they link, how they network begin to define my warp and weft, define all that is positive and meaningful in the hours, days and years we are given to live.
I guess living in a small town has made me understand this. I cannot think of anyone in my small paradise of Trumansburg, that I do not like, let alone love. This network of people care about me back...and it grows. With this, comes strength as friends, cohorts and neighbors that when we have to lean into the difficult, we do it together with each other in our corner. I love the kids that my kids go to school with. And the attention and fun chats we have are often reflected back in the most wonderful and gratifying way. It is easy to set up walls of how on e should live, who one should be friends with, the "right way" of everything from setting the table to speaking to someone more influential or wealthy. Once those walls are up and the rules are prescribed, the risk of failing within this in environment is palpable and measured. There is no room for this giving of love and looking at the world through the lens of friendship, community and family--only against the environment of right and wrong. I vote for being open and socially goal free. I vote for caring and letting relationships evolve--of giving to each other in ideas and work, of caring and spirit, of time and effort. And if you do, even just a little bit--the gifts that come back can be tenfold. So the only risk is not giving yourself the permission to love.
I am lucky in my loves.