ON NOT BEING THANKFUL W/ KAIA

Hello there, friends —

I’m not sure about you, but I’ve always had a short fuse for all of those gratefulness challenges, or those social media parades of all the things, people, and blessings people are grateful for leading up to Thanksgiving.

For a lot of folks, social media is already a highlight reel, so practices and reminders like this could act like salt to the wounds of those who have every reason to fall flat when others ask “so, what are you grateful for this year?”

This last week, I gathered with my brother & cousins (my little quarantine pod!) and we always have great conversations but I busted out a couple questions from my Reflection Cards (Holstee) and one of the questions was this:

What was one magical moment from this last year you don’t want to forget?

In the spirit of transparency, most of our answers did *not* have a 2020 timestamp.

And further than that, most of our answers were comparative to others losses.

What I mean by that is our magical moments, our joys, and what we were grateful for was only fully realized in comparison to those around us who have lost much more.

And as creative as we got with our answers, something feels so wrong about using others pain to celebrate our joy.

So here’s what I propose: a Thanksgiving where everyone goes around the table (metaphorically speaking) and defers their forced thankfulness for a real and candid acknowledgment of the things that broke you, or are currently breaking you.

We need more space for that.

Sending my best from a safe and healthy distance,

Kaia

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