Reverse Engineering Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving week U.S. friends! I’m thankful for anyone and everyone around the world who reads this. Don’t forget the blog readers special. This week, I’m giving everyone on the free blog the same offer that members get ALL of the time – a private one card reading on request. Seeing your name, email, topic, question or permission for an open reading is what helps me connect to your individual message, so if you put that information in an email I’ll reply with a free one card private Tarot reading. It would be a big help if you put THANKS23 in the subject line so I don’t accidentally get it confused with a question for the blog. Offer ends for free blog readers on 11-30-23.

Now to that reverse engineering thing.

Instead of pulling a card to see what ideas it brings to mind, let’s start with an idea and see what card it brings to mind.

Friendsgiving has had my attention lately.

Admittedly, this is focused on us here in th USA. Much love to the rest of the world, but right now I’m up to my eyeballs in dysfunctional family vibes and not dialing in very well to more universal themes at the moment. Thinking about Thanksgiving this year, The World comes to mind.

Worlds tend to collide during the holidays. Things that mean the world to us as individuals might mean little or nothing to other people. Sometimes, when the holidays bring together people who only gather out of social obligation or genetics, it can feel more like a game of billiards than a homecoming or reunion.

Holiday gatherings can also be comfort and warmth and a heartfelt celebration of the people who are, as the song goes, most dear to us.

Here I am reminded of the book The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot. The holidays can make us feel lonely by comparison to the rest of the year and by comparison to others who have connections that we don’t have.

You don’t have to connect through the holidays. You can connect to the whole universe anytime, anywhere with anything. According to Talbot, with actual 3-D holograms, every part of the projection material contains the information to project the whole image. Conceptually, that can be extended to our world in general. Pick up a pebble and you are holding the whole world in the palm of your hand.

Even if you are alone, if you celebrate your holiday your way (or even just allow yourself to enjoy some sort of non-holiday fun) then you are connected, you are a part of the whole holiday season. It doesn’t matter what you celebrate, or if you celebrate anything at all. You are a part of the wholeness of the universe. You are connected even if you are alone. Even if you are rejected by one group, there are others that would welcome you as one of our motley crew without hesitation.

There are reasons Friendsgiving is a thing – and to my thinking it is a wonderful thing at that.

It is probably a modern internet misappropriation of some old, misunderstood quote, but I think it exists in the collective consciousness for a reason. It is a much needed idea: “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” meaning that chosen bonds are real, are powerful and are important regardless of how you feel about your genetic family. This is a time of year to celebrate and be thankful for the family we’ve found out there in the wide world just as we celebrate, when able, our birth family.

As someone who has been literally and explicitly told by my mother that she thinks I’m going to hell, I’m here to tell you that religion and politics have affected family relationships. I don’t know how many families, to what extent or what percentages – but I can vouch for one.

I can also vouch that it is possible to be happy without the idyllic holiday. It is possible to make your own.

It’s not for me to know much you want to be a part of a genetic family that rejects you to whatever extent for whatever reason. But I hope that you know this:

Pick up a pebble and you hold the wholeness of Earth in your hand. Take a breath and know that you are a part of all humanity. There are people on this pebble hurtling through space that accept you for who you are. There are people that love the things that you love. There are people that love you.

They might not know it. You might not know it. It’s only been since the advent of internet access that we are beginning to see the threads of this level of connection, but world-bonds of found family do exist.

For that I am thankful.

And thank you so much for reading! Please visit Wednesday when we will look at the Lenormand deck. It feels like time to start weaving them into a larger reading than the one card meditations we’ve been doing. Next Learn With Me: Lenormand will be a three card energy path reading again with Thanksgiving as our focus.

See you at the next sip!