...OK, I guess not officially until tomorrow. But here in Northern Minnesota, we've entered what will be a week or so of unusually bitter temperatures, at least for December. It's about 1 above zero, Fahrenheit, and won't get much warmer. Then we're in for several days of 0 degree highs, plus high winds and snow. I remember from the 1990s, how hard these multi-day stretches are. Putting aside whether you are outside or have the privilege of being indoors, your body almost goes into hibernation mode. The minute it goes above 0, you can tell, and it almost feels warm. I try not to go out for any period of time when the real temperature or windchill reach -20, but even in -30 windchills, I'll need to help shovel when we get snow Wednesday through Friday. I'll be thankful literally every minute that I am indoors!
There's another thing to be thankful for. I had a near-accident yesterday which ultimately amounted to "nothing". But you may have experienced this...a car comes wailing around a corner and almost hits you. You grab a railing just in time to prevent a fall or trip. Or these days, you are in a crowd of people and still somehow manage not to get sick from the pandemic, the flu or other ailments...and for 24 to 48 hours, you live in this strange netherworld, where part of you experienced the accident and part of you didn't. I feel such gratitude and thankfulness, and found (upon searching) that none of my sets of oracle cards have "thankfulness" or "gratitude" cards...the best I could come up with was "Protection" and "Beloved". After Christmas, I may have to search for a new deck. But I'm not wandering around in this weather. I think I have enough food for a week.
Lastly, and this may not seem "a propos"...I am so thankful that I seem to have finally aligned with a unified, post-duality core self. It is making all the Christmas carol references to sin and salvation/being redeemed quite painful to listen to -- more so than I ever remember. I have to believe that such concepts don't exist in a Goddess-inspired paradigm. Over these next few days, I'll just have to focus on the musical melodies and harmonies (not the words!), the colors in the sky, the beauty of the fluffy new snow, and the relative silence once I turn the radio off. I'll focus on gratitude that I've made it this far. Thankfully.
