Happy Thanksgiving! I am recording, and writing, this for you on Thanksgiving so I hope this finds you enjoying your Thanksgiving, or Post-Thanksgiving, and time with family in some way shape or form! Today, I had many thoughts, emotions and ideas swirling in my head around gratitude and rites of passage. The most common question asked on Thanksgiving is... What are you grateful for? It is a question that begins to open up reflection for many as we approach the holiday season. For me, this time of the year is very reflective. Thanksgiving goes hand in hand with my Dad's birthday. This year, on 11/29, he would be 67 years old. In most recent years, this time of the year would bring up a lot of emptiness, sadness, resentment, hurt or anything else "negative." You name it and I most likely have experienced it come this time of the year. This year is different. The resentment and hurt have leveled down A LOT. The gratitude and appreciation have leveled up SIGNIFICANTLY. I have done a lot of personal development work this year that has influenced this. Long story short, my dad passed away 6 years ago come this January 24th, 2023. He was an alcoholic for 20 years at that point. That was a formative time in my life. I was 26 years old. I had just moved out on my own for good. Then, BAM, after almost a year of alienation, my Dad resurfaces and within in a week passes. I knew this was as significant moment in my life at the time and I wasn't able to make up the meaning of it entirely. It wasn't until January of 2020, 3 years since my Dad's passing, that it really clicked for me when I was reading Matthew McConaughey's book Greenlights. There is a part in his book that he dives into his Dad's passing and he says, "Losing my father, like it is for many, was my most seminal rite of passage into manhood. No more safety net. No one above the law and government looking after me anymore. It was time for me to grow up." I remember this resonating with me. When I was reading this book I was in the process of making the transition to starting my coaching business. I didn't fully accept or lean into the Rite of Passage of my Dad dying and what it meant for me. In that moment, I made more sense of it. **To provide clarity, here's how a Rite of Passage is defined: a ceremony or event marking an important stage in someone's life, especially birth, puberty, marriage, and death.** This year, 2022, is when I REALLY began to lean into it. There are so many correlations that can be made to my Dad's life and decisions that he ultimately didn't lean into and take action on. Decisions that I am noticing in my life this year, and presently, that I am taking action on that are going to be life changing for me and my family. Rites of passage may present uncertainty, challenge, anger, sadness and a whole host of emotions. My encouragement to you is to lean into them. Pull out what you can and learn from them. Acknowledge the above and also direct your focus to what serves you in the process so you can use it to create from the opportunities it presents. On the other side of rites of passage is a new perspective on life that will open up to newest version of you that you are called into. It's time for you to answer that call!
