The Gratitude We Speak, The Love We Keep: A Sacred Thanksgiving Reflection & A Call to Say It Now

This year was a very chill Thanksgiving for me and my family. Just my hubby, and my two boys, all dressed for the day in new PJ’s. You’re welcome.

It arrived as a portal—taking me back to the days when we all lived in the same house. Our eldest now lives in Minneapolis and it was so nice to have our nuclear family all together. 

For many of us, it was a time of gathering with loved ones, laughing in familiar kitchens, feeling the warmth of belonging… while also touching the invisible places where loss still lives.

And perhaps you also found yourself thinking of those who were not physically at your table this year… making phone calls to them, sending them love and good wishes, and also holding those who are no longer here in physical form, yet close in memory, gratitude, and love.

This is the truth of life:
Our life experience keeps inviting us into the full spectrum—the beauty, the heartache, the mystery, the miraculous. And if we want to keep growing, we must allow ourselves to meet everything that arises. All of it is invited.

When we resist—when we brace or block the flow—something essential gets interrupted. The blessings can’t quite reach us, and we’re left with uncertainty.

Did I love enough?
Was I generous in my giving?
Did I fully appreciate all that I was given?

But when we breathe… even gently… something softens.
We open.
We receive again.
We begin to feel life moving through us instead of around us or against us.

Because gratitude isn’t just a feeling. It’s a frequency, a bridge, a reframe, a way of seeing again. And when we express it—when we speak it—gratitude becomes a healing force.

The Power of Noticing

A couple of days ago on a quiet solo, morning walk in Serenbe, I paused because I heard the softest rustle: a deer stepping onto the path. We simply stood there, taking in one another for a short while, before the deer trotted off into the forrest.

That moment didn’t ask for anything grandiose.
It asked for presence.
It asked for noticing.
It asked for openness.

It reminded me that joy often hides in plain sight (especially in nature)… waiting for us to stop long enough to receive it.

The Power of Saying It Now: A Walter Green Reminder

Walter Green, author of This Is the Moment, offers a transformative invitation… To sum it up, his “Say it Now” message goes like this:

Most people wait until eulogies to say what matters.
They wait until later.
Until “someday.”
Until they think the timing is right.

But gratitude, appreciation, love—they are meant to be expressed now.

Not in the highlights or milestones, but in the ordinary.
Not someday at the end of the story, but in the middle of the messiness and the beauty.

Say it now.
Not when it’s convenient.
Not when it’s perfect.
But while the people we love are alive to hear it.

The Gratitude Gathering: A Ceremony for What Matters Most

I am humbled and grateful to currently serve as the President of the virtual New Patlz Master Network’s chapter, a networking group focusing on building lasting relationships. It has become a tradition to hold “Gratitude Gatherings” around Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s, and these gratitude parties are designed to be more than a meeting.

It was created as a space where:
✨ We name what we might overlook.
✨ We breathe into both the joy and the heartache.
✨ We share stories that remind us we are not alone.
✨ We express appreciation while we still can.
✨ We allow support, softness, connection, and ease.
✨ We let gratitude rise from the realness of our lives—not just the shiny parts.

We opened with Walter Green’s song “Say It Now” (Here’s the link if you are interested) and then we took turns answering the question: “What’s something you’re grateful for?”

We shared tender stories.
We spoke aloud the gratitude behind the grit.
We named someone we want to appreciate.
We committed to saying it now, not later.

It was a reminder for me, (and I believe, all) that gratitude grows exponentially when it is witnessed. It becomes more real when someone says, “me too.”

Why This Season Matters More Than Ever

This Thanksgiving, many of us felt the full spectrum:
The sweetness of connection, the sting of loss, the heaviness of memory, the aliveness of love.

It all belongs.

I believe life is always asking us to accept what is (in this moment and in every moment)...
To stay open to it.
To stay awake.
To stay grateful in real time, not in hindsight.
To breathe through everything.
To express what matters.
To cherish what we have while we have it.

Because what I know to be true is…
Gratitude spoken becomes love embodied.
And love embodied becomes healing.
And healing becomes a ripple of light that touches everyone around us.

The season is now for living from the heart. It’s about living gratitude as a practice, a presence, a way of relating to the world—and to each other.

Because the world doesn’t just need more gratitude. It needs more expressed gratitude.
More “I love you.”
More “thank you.”
More “you matter to me.”
More of the words we often think but don’t always say.

This is the moment to say it.
This is the moment to soften and keep our hearts open.
This is the moment to let gratitude lead.

Wishing you all blessings in every direction of your lives!