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“Gratitude vs. Performative Thankfulness — or: Stop Thanking the Sweet Potatoes for Your Trauma”

Let’s talk about gratitude.

Not the kind you write on a chalkboard in perfect cursive so you can post it on social media with the caption
✨“So blessed”✨
while peeling your eye twitching behind the scenes like a raccoon in the pantry.

No — real gratitude.
Spiritual gratitude.
The kind that isn’t staged like a Hallmark commercial where everyone is smiling and no one threatens to overthrow the turkey with a coup d’état.

See, there’s a difference between being thankful
and being obligated to perform joy while coping with a family’s collective dysfunction in a confined dining room space while someone says grace for fourteen minutes.

Some truths for today:

• You don’t have to be grateful “for everything.”
  Sometimes you’re just grateful you survived.
• You can be thankful for growth without romanticizing suffering.
  We’re not doing pain-worship.
• You can honor your blessings without gaslighting yourself into believing everything is fine when half the table is emotionally possessed by seasonal ancestral chaos.
• You can be thankful for food…
  …while firmly realizing the mashed potatoes did not heal your childhood wound.

And here’s the good one:

You can choose peace this year
even if that means excusing yourself to silently contemplate existence in the bathroom for seven minutes with your eyes closed and a glass of wine.

It is spiritual.

It counts.

Because here’s the deeper truth wrapped in the punchline:

Gratitude isn’t about pretending life is flawless.
Gratitude is about observing the ordinary moments that don’t ask you to shrink.
The ones where you can breathe.
The ones where your nervous system sighs in relief.
The ones that whisper:
“You’re allowed to be here.”

So today — whether you’re celebrating, ignoring, or escaping…

May your gratitude be honest,
your boundaries be blessed,
your sweet potatoes be buttered,
and your sanity remain intact.

And if all else fails:
remember the turkey didn’t die for family drama.
Honor its noble sacrifice by refusing to give your peace away.

With devotion and wonder,
The Inspired Imaginative | The Devoted Mystic

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