Thanksgiving, 2020 Style

Over the years, I’ve found comfort in focusing on the gratitude part of Thanksgiving. Gratitude for what we have, the abundance and pleasures as well as the challenges that force us to evolve. The sibling of gratitude is service--offering skills, kindness, compassion and resources. Together, gratitude, service and loving kindness can be the healing balm for our overwhelm, born of the restriction, loss and uncertainty we've faced together in the past year.

    We’ve needed to find the silver linings in the stormy clouds, while holding immense compassion for others who may face even harsher struggles. We’ve seen that we have to show up and take action, no longer sitting on the sidelines hoping someone will save us.
    We have been asked to grow up and mature, the 2020 message of restructuring, transformational planets in Capricorn forming new cycles to taskmaster us into a new world.
    The next phase of our awakening process launches on December 21st, initiating a twenty year Aquarian period of innovation, invention, humanitarian efforts, technological advances, and the pursuit of equality and social justice, as well as the beginning of a two hundred year period where science and rational thought are highly valued throughout society. We may overshoot, and give rational intellectualism too much power—some might say we’ve already developed technology beyond our capacity to manage it. We will need to balance this new era with personal human connection, cultivating a deeper relationship with the natural world, creativity and intuition.
    As we pause in this holiday season, between the gifts and losses of 2020 and new beginnings ahead, I hope you’ll join me in consciously releasing all the ways the old world has not been working for you and others. That you’ll look at your heart’s deepest desires and take steps to manifest different ways of living—for yourself, and for others.
    The way in which we connect with loved ones this season is likely to be different from the past. Hopefully there’s delicious food, laughter and love, yet the safety menu will also include masks, fans, air purifiers, open windows or outside meals, and purposeful surrender to the new normal.
    I feel grateful for your support and love, for each and every conversation we’ve had this year, for all of the classes in which we’ve bonded in little squares on a screen.
    I look forward to the day we can sit together in my cozy office, sharing a cup of tea, or walking among the trees together at an in person retreat, embracing with long hugs and deep breaths.
    I wish you a safe and abundant holiday season.
    We will get through this, together.

Love & gratitude,
Kay