Welcome to Love Notes from Rhonda.

And today is Thanksgiving, if you live in the United States.

And Thanksgiving has always been one of my very, very favorite holidays.

One, because it's around gratitude.

So how amazing is that?

And two, it was a time for my family to gather together and have my very favorite meal, which is turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing with a delicious roll.

Favorite meal.

One of my favorite, too.

And so I got to have my favorite food, I got to have my favorite leftovers.

Nobody pointed out how much food I ate or didn't eat.

It was all gratitude and all about eating.

Sure, there would be watching a football game or connecting, but when I was growing up, we didn't talk very much.

And this Thanksgiving, like all Thanksgivings as I've become an adult, is different than they were as a child.

And I've got to work diligently, be awake to how I want to spend each Thanksgiving Day.

There have been times I spent Thanksgiving all alone when I was shooting, starting over.

I remember the first year after I got back, after I got done shooting, I was so exhausted, I told my family for the very first time ever that I was not traveling to one of their homes for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So every year I no longer have the thing that I always do that I did for most of my life.

Instead, I check in with myself and ask myself, how do I want to spend this holiday?

So how do I want to spend this time?

Now, I've shared before how I do 100 gratitudes and 100 acknowledgements during this time, and I will be working on those diligently today.

But also, besides the gratitude, besides the acknowledgments, beside the bittersweetness of family remembering and deciding how I want to spend today, there is also a mourning, a grieving, that bittersweetness turning into sadness that maybe you've experienced, too, that Thanksgiving isn't what it used to be.

Because family isn't what or who they used to be, or you're not who used to be.

Things that were okay with you are not okay with you anymore.

And things that pleased you don't please you anymore.

I was talking to my mentor the other day, and we were talking about holidays and we were talking about family.

And she basically said to me, in no uncertain terms, rhonda, your journey, not all of it, but some of it, is going to be spent alone because you have work to do.

And that work can only be done in solitude.

Now I know that.

I'm aware of that.

Yet having her Say it to me was one validating, but also heart stopping.

Yes, I've known this.

I've said it myself.

But just to hear it again from a mouth that has my best interest at heart, that I know cares for me, that I know is here to help me to be the best person I can be.

Right.

Just like I am.

Hopefully that person for you are there for you, maybe even some of your colleagues and your fellow students.

Hopefully we're all coming here together so that we can all support each other to be the best we can be.

Not by giving advice or not telling anybody what to do, but telling the truth when asked.

So in a loving, gentle way, of course.

So as she said to me this, and she gave me a rousing speech about what I'm here to do and who I'm meant to be.

And family may not be what I want it to be or how I thought it would be.

I didn't only think about myself, but I thought about you, too.

And how we have so much wrapped into our families, how many dreams we have wrapped up in our families, and how much desire and expectations and just love that we want so desperately from our families.

And some of us get it and some of us don't.

So I just want us to be in touch with the bittersweetness of today.

Whether you're with the people you love and playing cards or doing whatever you love to do on Thanksgiving and having a fantastic time, which I hope is all of you, or if you're moving through the shifts and the changes that and your family's changing, you're changing, things are changing, and it's not like it used to be.

There's a new normal, new something you have to create together.

And you have to decide for yourself what you're willing to contribute to that newness.

So wherever you are today, whatever you're doing today, I invite you to be grateful that you're on this journey to become more and more you.

The journey to become more and more who you're meant to be.

The journey to live the life your soul intended.

The journey that brings you back to you.

So whether you're spending it with family or alone or whether a group of friends or strangers, I want you to remember that today is the day.

Not only to be thankful for others, but to be thankful that you get to be you today and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am so glad you're here and I am so grateful for you.

Until next time, be fearless.

I love you.