A Thanksgiving Note
"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. – Marianne Williamson
November 27th, 2024
📍San Miguel de Allende, GTO, Mexico 🇲🇽
¡Saludos desde el desierto!
AAA projects 79.9 million travelers will head 50 miles or more from home over this week's Thanksgiving holiday travel period. I know many of you are vigorously meal planning, traveling, and preparing to come together with friends and family. I will be praying for your safe travels.
It feels strange to be living in Mexico where this Thursday is like any other and Black Friday doesn't exist. I'm okay with that, as this "holiday" has never been my favorite due to the complex history of the first Thanksgiving. I'm happy to say no to celebratory turkey and consumerist habits this year, but I will miss gathering around a beautifully decorated table with my loved ones.
Like Jesus eating with His disciples in the upper room, there is something special about sharing a meal as a fellowship offering. As my mom says, "putting our feet under each other's tables" can connect us deeply with each other and remind us to be thankful. While this may be true, I also want to acknowledge that the holidays can be troublesome for many of us, especially this year with the current political climate in the United States.
Americans are incredibly divided as a nation, and those battle lines don't necessarily come to a truce at the dinner table; at least, they don't in my family.
This election year, in particular, there is a lot of anger on all sides, and we're failing as a country not to "other" those who don't align with our political views and religious beliefs. While the current state of affairs needs to be addressed (we can't just bury our heads in the sand), I want to stress that this letter is not about politics but Love.
Speaking of sitting around the dinner table, I got the chance to make new friends over a delicious dinner with these incredible views of SMA. Enjoy!
I've had multiple conversations with friends this past week struggling with an acute lack of expressed love within the Church, their families, and their country; Me too.
Humans can be so linear, so black and white in our thinking, that we leave little gray areas for people, concepts, and principles to exist outside of our beliefs and understanding (aka our comfort zone).
In our ego-driven need to be "right," we are failing as a species to live by the Golden Rule: to love one another as ourselves. When we aren't looking at each other through the lense of God's Love, we "other" people who exist outside of our comfort zones (rooted in fear). As Helen Schucman states in A Course in Miracles, "If a mind perceives without love, it perceives an empty shell and is unaware of the spirit within."
My friends, we don't have to understand or agree to see each other through the lens of God's perfect Love as beloved children. I know it's not easy.
And while humans in this broken world will continue to disappoint on this front, Love Himself will never be found lacking when it comes to all of humanity. This truth is something I know I can be thankful for this turkey day.
My prayer for those of you gathering in community this week, as you sit around the table with other broken humans desperately in need of Love's grace and mercy, may you radiate an embodied wisdom of the Love you have received and shine that brightly into the world around you.
I’m so grateful for you,
Jennifer
Reflection Question: This Thanksgiving, how might you practice embodying the Golden Rule to love others as you love yourself in tangible ways?
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