Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Happy Belated Thankstaking!

Wait. Huh. Actually, I'm early!

Every first Tuesday of May, we celebrate the feast of Thankstaking by taking a moment, or as many as necessary really, to consider and celebrate all the things throughout the year we've given others. Big things and little things; gifts, blessings, services - all the things we know should be acknowledged and commemorated, but maybe there just hasn't been time in this busy life to do so. So often, we forget about the gratitude that is due!

And so, Thankstaking: a special day set aside for it. Celebrate that gratitude by joining in with all those we know have cause to be grateful. Help them celebrate Thankstaking by various observances, reminders and greetings! Whatever we can festively do to make sure all the gratitude that should have been celebrated is well celebrated, that's what the day is for. Because so often we forget, or they forgot, or maybe they just thought they were entitled and we let it go without comment. Maybe we didn't want to make a big thing over it at the time. On Thankstaking, you have a free pass!

And now, some tips and advice on celebrating a satisfying and festive Thankstaking Day:

1. Start your cards early! In fact, buy a good stock of Thankstaking cards and keep them handy as the year flies. Every time something happens that you know you're going to want to remember on Thankstaking Day, take a moment in the moment. Don't wait, write out the card right then! Thankstaking Day is one holiday where if warranted, it is perfectly appropriate to send multiple greeting cards to the same person.

2. Put thought into those cards. Make sure your Thankstaking cards are on-point and always appropriate. This is no time for jokey novelty cards that make fun and undermine the occasion. Gratitude is important and Thankstaking Day is no day to hint around. Why confuse people with subtext? The front of the card should look cheerful and put it simply: "Happy Thankstaking!" or "Happy Thankstaking For A Very Blessed Year," if the person is religious or something. The inside of the card should contain a simple, sweet, sincere message: "You're Welcome" is pretty standard. Then you can write in whatever details.

3. It's perfectly all right, all day long, in any instance where gratitude should occur: just call out a "You're Welcome," right there and then! On Thankstaking Day, this couldn't be more appropriate.

4. Also perfectly appropriate: a belated or "catch-up" you're welcome. Call out a thankstaking for any prominent past event that you neglected to mention at the time, or didn't send a card for. "Hey Bob - you know what? I've been meaning to tell you, you're welcome for all of the help I gave you on the SmartMart presentation." I can't emphasize enough how very appropriate this is, on Thankstaking Day.

5. Plan a pretty good feast. Thankstaking is more a holiday than a feast, really - but like all the good holidays, Thankstaking is a good excuse to "pig out." There are no hard, set, "traditional" dishes involved, which is your cue to get creative! Calling together a gathering of all the people who have had the greatest cause for gratitude, and serving them an appropriate feast - what a great way to celebrate the day, if you can pull it off. Plan out a menu where dishes subtly allude to various reasons and causes for particular peoples' gratitude. The feast is one aspect of Thankstaking where subtly is savored and prized! For example, if you've been mowing a neighbor's lawn frequently without any acknowledgement, for starters you might serve him...I don't know, a delicious long-blade wheatgrass salad in a bitter vinaigrette? Things like that. Use creativity here.

Look, these are just ideas, and you get the idea. Celebrate Thankstaking Day in the manner that seems fitting and appropriate to you! You know what great good cause there has been in the past year for gratitude, and you know what chances were missed. One day a year, we can all come together to catch up on every chance we can, and bring all that gratitude to the fore.

You're Welcome.

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