Thanksgiving Leftovers
Thanksgiving Leftovers
Thanksgiving is awesome. I know for some it is forced confinement with the people you’ve been meticulously avoiding the entire year. But, for me at least, it is a warm, fuzzy, magical time. I was thinking about why. There is the mountainous cornucopia of food. There is the returning to hearth and the embrace of loved ones. But in my exploration of what I love about Thanksgiving something else surfaced— everyone pausing their life together, the collective breath that is taken.
Life doesn’t relent. Especially this life, now. Its so true its platitudinous to say it. Technology has given us the freedom to always be working, producing, downloading and uploading. The rat race has become formula-one paced and our breaks are mere pit stops, measured in fractions of time, deemed successful only in their brevity and the how they refuel us for the laps ahead.
So the problem is this: I can’t stop because no one else will. If I were to stop, I would fall behind.
I feel this on Mondays, and I feel this on Sundays. There is a need to be always preparing, producing and getting ahead. Thanksgiving is a time when I allow myself to rest because everyone else is allowing themselves to rest. It is a breath of pure oxygen that tickles my tired bones.
*I’ll note, my neuroses to be productive is not just societally induced. It was born at the headwaters of my life, was fed by many tributaries along the way and now finds happy expression at this present working-adult confluence. I won’t get into that all here.
So this is the problem but what is the answer, because I would like to rest on more than just federal holidays.
Here is one answer. I went and saw a movie the weekend before thanksgiving. I saw it after work and by myself. It was a little stressful. The choice of movie didn’t help (there was bludgeoning by shovel) but I also couldn’t shake the feeling that I was falling behind, being lapped, losing the race. But that is exactly the feeling I must confront if I am to get rest on a regular day.
I’m going to keep trying it, see how it goes. Maybe you could too. That sure would make me feel better about it. But, I won’t know if you do and I have to find peace within myself. Here is to many more thanksgivings.
Rest isn’t a luxury — it’s a skill.
And like any skill, it takes practice, reassurance, and sometimes someone sitting with you in the discomfort of slowing down. For many of us, permission to pause only feels valid when everyone else is pausing too. But imagine building a life where your well-being doesn’t have to wait for a national holiday.
If you’re finding it hard to breathe in the middle of all the pressure, or if you want support redefining what rest, purpose, and balance look like in your world — you don’t have to figure it out alone.
I’d be honored to walk alongside you in that work.
Reach out anytime, and let’s take that next breath together.
— Alex
Meet Alex
About The Author
Alex is a licensed marriage and family therapist (CAMFT156085). supervised by Jeremy Mast, MS, MDiv, LMFT, CSAT (CAMFT90961). Alex’s experience includes trauma work, psychodynamic training, crisis intervention, and providing therapy in private practice High School and correctional facility settings. In his free time, Alex enjoys surfing and writing short stories and poems.
