A Life Well Traveled

Entering through the threshold of a door and immediately becoming enveloped with the welcome embrace of familiar scents, you realize the holidays have arrived. Spicy pumpkin greets you in the form of flickering candles scattered about. Molten chocolate beckons from behind oven doors and tantalizes as you take a peek through the foggy glass. Being pushed from the kitchen by a pair of oven mitt-clad hands, you steal a buttery kiss and await the feast that will be taking place later in the evening.

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for the things life has given you, whether they be humble or grandiose. Preparing for holidays can seem like a task better left to caterers, but memories are made in each smear of sweet potato that goes unnoticed on a warm forehead, in every grain of sugar spilled onto the floor, and even in the burns you may receive from being too hasty in your actions. Love is shown in the plates that are set, the glow of flames in the fireplace, and in the laughter you can hear wafting into the kitchen from loved ones gathered together.

Traveling during these next few months might mean plane rides or long hauls down the interstate. But it could also mean reminiscing with family and remembering stories told around the coffee table. Crack open the spine of A Christmas Carol for the hundredth time and fly out the window with Scrooge as he visits with his ghosts, or perhaps just pop in a movie to watch It’s a Wonderful Life and attempt to lasso the moon. Leaving the spot you currently sit doesn’t have to mean walking out your front door. Maybe this holiday season you can simply embrace life’s smaller gifts and be thankful.