The holidays are going to be looking different this year, on so many accounts. Maybe this is the first time you’ve chosen not to go home due to Corona or keeping family safe, you have to work because we’re in a pandemic and money is tight, or things are just weird all around and staying home is the best option.
Here for you. Don’t forget to self-care, go outside and phone a friend or family member. Then make this cocktail and FT your bestie.
I’m lucky enough to have my parents visiting for a few days over Thanksgiving and while they arrive tomorrow I wanted to make sure my Thanksgiving cocktail was good to go, they’re great and awesome but you know, could think of better things I could be spending my time on than recipe testing cocktails ;)
So, cheers. Make this drink if you can or another if you must. Show me what you’re making on insta (@wildartifact). Dive deep into the thankfulness and maybe you didn’t get that trip to Spain you were planning, the wedding of your dreams got re-booked or ended up completely different and maybe now you’re shopping in a different jean size (who isn’t tho, amiright) so I encourage you to look to the small, mundane, ordinary, those stable parts of life that are constant and always there, in the most beautiful of ways.
For myself, a lot of cool, fun things didn’t happen, but instead of stressing out, I breathed out and let the space linger. I am thankful for my stunning, beautiful friends who show up all the damn time, the way the light filters through my bedroom curtains in the morning, the scent of the air that changes throughout the year. I am thankful for my cute little house (no matter the eye rolley things that happen to it), the beautiful but small gatherings I did get to do, the words and support whispered to me that enabled me to take the leap and start Wild Wednesdays and launch Wild Artifact into another direction. The work, the work, the work. Thankful for space to dive deeper than I ever have and start opening those rooms I’d welded shut, to heal and love and learn. Thankful for the summer nights I would be ridiculous and dress for dinner, dishes I would experiment with, then smoke a cigar and stay out and greet the stars as they appeared and get lost in silence and wonder. I got to play a lot this year, not vacation play or sports or the typical, but I got to experiment and have successes and then also not have things work out and that be ok. Thankful for the times I got to spend with my family, beautiful/stressful/full/loving/hard working times. Lying with my niece in the middle of a windy summer, Minnesota night, the stars so numerous our brains felt like exploding and our eyes hurting, trading secrets and talks and feeling more like adults than the boundary of elder. The friendships that have deepened with intentionality and authenticity. The books I’ve read and the three journals I’ve ferociously written in, the dreams that have come to me every night and the ones that have made it in the dream journals. Thankful for friends love stories unfolding before our eyes and those little bursts of humanity that stun and leave you shaken, in the best way. Those moments of courage and bravery where I felt like throwing up and stopping, because it all felt bigger than myself and what I could handle….and doing it anyway. The five little lemon trees that are thriving from those Gin + Tonics made on a sultry night in June.
And the thing is, I can keep going. But I’ll save that for what may inevitably be my fifth journal of 2020 and just say that I am also thankful for you. To anyone who reads this and has encouraged or supported me in any way. It can be hard to keep going when comparison and the world so daunting and full of people doing amazing things, but y’alls kind words give me life. So, thank you.
