It’s Thanksgiving week, the perfect time to share my gratitude for something I will forever relish.

Memories and experiences of togetherness…in so many forms.

Last week, I came across a post online that graphed out the periods in our life. It showed six graphs about who and how we spend our time during our lifetime. It included time spent with parents, siblings, friends, children, partners and so forth. The key takeaway was that 5 out of the 6 graphs peak when you’re younger and then steadily drop off. The only one that is steady and doesn’t peak is the partner graph. Every other relationship in life has an early peak.

After looking at that graph, I talked to John and my kids about it. It reminded me that our life together as a family is peaking now. And our time with everyone else  – friends, extended family and more – is also peaking RIGHT NOW.

This is a precious time that we can’t take for granted. 

So I’m choosing to be intentional.

Some days we may not realize we’re in these magic years, and they could fly by.

That’s why it’s just really important that we slow things down, do fun things together, and cherish this time, knowing that it will not last forever.

In Chicago, John and I live in a really tight-knit community where many of us moved in around the same time. The weekend before last, we hosted another annual Friendsgiving for our neighborhood. We had probably 55 people in our house, including kids. The experience always really fills me up and makes me even more grateful for the community that we found here. John made some really good main dishes, and everyone else also pitched in with bringing sides, appetizers, and dessert. Everyone in our community cares and puts in an effort. One of our neighbors smoked a brisket to bring, so he got up at 6 am to put it in a smoker so it would be ready for our dinner. 

What we’ve found here is incredibly rare. Our neighborhood has so many gatherings throughout the year – from Halloween to New Year and more – to just celebrate togetherness. We’ve formed these friendships and relationships that will last our entire lives, even if we don’t always live on the same block.

Both John and I have realized that we will likely never have this community of people anywhere we go. At one point, we were thinking about moving out of the city to have the opportunity to stretch out a bit on more land. The fact that we currently have a community like ours weighed heavily in our decision to stay in the city. We both realized that we have something really special here.

Having a sense of community is so important. Our block community is AMAZING. And, at a time when it seems like the world is continually divided, having something like this that continually brings us together is incredibly soul-filling.

Community lifts me up.

Community is like extended family.

And, as you know, family time is so important to me. 

This week we are in New Jersey to spend time with John’s family. Madden is excited to be here. We go every year, so he has had these memories since he was little, and he says Thanksgiving in New Jersey is his favorite holiday. That’s really cool to hear. I love that he gets so excited about the food and that both the kids get quality time with John, helping him cook. As Madden has gotten older, he has also gotten more into football and talking about it with his cousins. Overall, it’s a great time to connect as a family and create memories. I’m always just really appreciative and thankful for this week’s memories.

As we’re heading into the season of overconsumption again, we’ve been talking with our kids about how gifts come in many forms. When you look at an overview of life, like those graphs do, these occasions filled with memories and experiences are the real gift. Over the last couple of years, during this “season of stuff,” we’ve been very intentional about adding more layers of family experiences to our lives.

We can hold on to these experiences as memories longer than we’d ever hold onto more “stuff.” These moments are what I’m going to put into my memory vault. 

Last week the kids and I decided to go through every single “thing” in our basement recreation room. As we were sifting through toys that got unused and the overwhelm that goes along with that I thought even more about over consumption. If we could teach our kids to value experiences as much as “stuff” then I believe they will lead a more intentional life. 

I came up with an idea and asked the kids if, for Christmas, instead of buying more “stuff,” what if we let you choose a place in the US to travel to at some point throughout the year. They loved that idea. Jersey’s pick? Wyoming. Sounds good to me!

Looking at your life and having gratitude for the people in it is really powerful. The more grateful you are for anything, the more of you will draw into your life too.

I’ve been so grateful this year, and that’s why the past year has really started to feel a little bit magical, full of even more memories with my family, my friends, my neighborhood, and my bowling community. It’s not really magic though. It’s just energy. Showing up intentionally and with gratitude in our everyday lives is a powerful way to share energy. When you do that, the universe answers back. The energy you send out, you will get back. What you appreciate, you’ll receive. I feel like everything has a cause and effect.

Most people forget that they have control over their lives and energy. But if you take a moment to be grateful and celebrate even the little moments and memories, more of them will show up in your life. 

Thanksgiving week is the perfect time to create new awareness and gratitude for wherever you are in your life and whoever you have around you. So much of the time, we just live our lives and don’t pay enough attention.

I’ve always tried to live my days intentionally, but this time of the year always brings me back “home” to what I’m most grateful for, and brings it into even clearer focus.

Happy Thanksgiving to you. May you slow things down, intentionally live, and give more than you receive.