you & me

10 Reminders for the Heart Who Woke up Lonely on Thanksgiving.

 

Thanksgiving is a day to count our blessings, spread our love, and share the many reasons we have to be thankful for the abundant joys that fill our lives.

It has become a day for apple-cider-snuggles, chilly football huddles, and pumpkin-pie eskimo-kisses as the sun sets over the horizon. So, what’s a heart to do when she wakes up lonely on the one designated day of the year to be thankful?

What’s a heart to do when guilt creeps in and sorrow takes over and tears won’t seem to stop flowing?

Place your hand over your heart, sweet soul. Feel its beating symphony promising you that you’re still alive. Feel your heart, and read my words.

There is always a reason to be thankful.

1. Feeling lonely is only possible if you’ve known the opposite: It’s so easy to curse our troubles, reject our sorrows, and wish for a ray of light in what seems to be an endless darkness.

It’s even easier to forget that without sadness, darkness, and loneliness, we wouldn’t know happiness, light, and fulfillment. Be thankful for these days. Allow yourself to breathe in the still, lonely air. Your heart is open. Your heart is hopeful.

Your heart only knows lonely because it has also known the opposite, and the opposite is sure to follow.

2. No feeling is final: What a beautiful and tragic reminder this is. The high points in our life are not promised, and the low points are never permanent.

Today may feel like sorrow, but if you’re lucky enough to wake and find tomorrow, you’ll be reminded that each day begins with another chance to get it right.

3. Believe it or not, you’re going to miss this: We always wish for the things we don’t have. We find love and we seek freedom, find freedom and mistake it for emptiness, find something to fill the missing spaces and decide our jagged edges will never fit.

There will come a day when you will wake up on Thanksgiving with everything you’re wishing for today. Your heart will be happy, your world will be full, and you’ll breathe in air that has never smelt more like home.

You will also find yourself thinking back to this exact day, darling. You will think back to this day and you will smile when you realize how far you’ve come. You will also wish that for a moment you could go back to this day and allow yourself to enjoy it.

To not run from the fear and sadness, but, rather, find simplicity in the aloneness and allow your heart to find fulfillment in knowing this is not the end.

4. There are answers in the silence: I’ve learned that it’s usually the times that we seek the advice in those around us, reaching and clawing and begging for some sort of justification, answer, or solution, that we already know exactly what the answer is and just don’t want to face the truth.

I’ve learned that sometimes the best answer is a silent room surrounded by only the thoughts in my head and the sound of my heart. Sometimes the silence surprises us. Sometimes the silence breaks our heart. But I’ve learned that the silence always has something to say.

It’s time to start listening.

5. There is always something to be thankful for: It’s easy to get swallowed by our loneliness. It’s easy to get tricked into the notion that our darkness is all that exists. Allow the light in your life to seep into your darkness.

Allow your heart to feel the warmth that we both know is there, and allow your head to believe the truth wrapped up within the lies. You are beautiful, you are blessed, you are strong, and you are abundant.

Your heart is still allowed to feel full, even when there are empty spaces mixed in. Allow the emptiness to serve a purpose, but don’t spend so much time focusing on the empty that you forget the many blessings that surround it.

6. Giving thanks is not reserved for Thanksgiving: Sure, it’s in the name, but please remember that we have the wonderful opportunity to allow our thankful feelings to remain long after Thanksgiving is over.

Today may not be your day, and that’s okay. There is nothing wrong with you for feeling sad or lonely or broken on a day reserved for giving thanks.

Remember your worth, let your eyes face the sun, and if you don’t feel that you’ve succeeded today at giving all of the thanks for which your life is worthy of, take comfort in the knowledge that you’ve got 364 other days to try again.

7. Today is just a day: I don’t know why we naturally place so much weight and importance on the holidays, almost as though we should feel guilty if any feelings of sadness or doubt should creep in. Please remember that today is just a day, and tomorrow will be here soon.

It doesn’t make you less loved to show up to Thanksgiving dinner alone. It doesn’t make you less worthy to cry in the car, or wish things were different, and it doesn’t make you less thankful if it takes a longer time this year to think of a reason to give thanks.

Take a deep breath, give yourself a break, and when all else fails, remember that today is just a day.

8. Don’t feel bad for a heart that remembers: Maybe you’re missing someone today, maybe you wish you wouldn’t have left; maybe you still don’t understand why they couldn’t stay.

These feelings serve a purpose; you miss them because they mattered, you miss them because a heart never forgets. Don’t wish away the memories, don’t beat yourself up because you swear you can still feel them, smell them, see them standing in the hallway as though they’re still here today.

Don’t feel bad for a heart that remembers, but don’t waste time begging back a heart that couldn’t stay.

9. Allow yourself to be present: Our days are made up of so many precious moments that make life worth living. Oftentimes, we miss these moments amidst the chaos, the stress, and the fast pace of daily living that we feel we need to achieve in order to reach success.

The falling leaves, the frost-covered grass, the sweet sound of children playing innocently outside. There is beauty in every single moment, even when we are stuck in the ugliest of times. Allow yourself to stop and appreciate the beauty of the moment for all of its perfect imperfections.

10. Remember your breath, remember your heartbeat: Two of the simplest forms of our existence, yet, without them, we would no longer be.

When all else fails you, when darkness surrounds you and tears engulf you and silence is too much for you to bear, please remember this: you still have your heartbeat. You still have your breath.

Place your hand over your heart, sweet soul. Feel its beating symphony promising you that you’re still alive. Feel your heart, and read my words.

There is always a reason to be thankful.

***

{Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest}

 

Comments

Macaile Hutt

Macaile Hutt

Macaile Hutt believes the best perfume is Idaho mountain air, the deepest laugh often comes from the mouth of a child, and coffee is the answer no matter the question. She has had to learn the hard way that some words ache until they are said. Find your voice and let it be heard. Macaile would like you to join her on Facebook or her website, as you take your own heart and live this beautiful life in search of perfect moments in such a way that every moment becomes perfect.
Macaile Hutt
Macaile Hutt