Giving Thanks

It is Thanksgiving in Canada. My favourite holiday. It is the one holiday where there is little pressure, people just come together and eat, relax. . . this year my Mom and I fought. It's over now - we all made fun of her gravy - she didn't find it funny - all is right with the world.

One of our family traditions is to go around the table and say what we are thankful for. Since there was a lot of gravy tension during grace, and the turkey was getting cold, I said an all-encompassing one, and we skipped our tradition. But I still have more to say. . .

In thinking about the things for which I am grateful I have had a major epiphany - I am happy with the way my life has turned out, and I don't need to have more kids.

The realization came recently while I was sitting in a park waiting to pick some things up at the printer. There were several families there - and most of the parents were my age or older. Their kids were high maintenance - aka: little assholes. Demanding, inattentive and stubborn - over indulged and undisciplined. It suddenly became very real to me - what it would be like to have more children. I always think about kids as babies, and how amazing it was to have my son, and how this time I would do things better because I would be older, and I would appreciate being a Mom and compensate for mistakes I felt I had made . . . etc. But then I remembered - babies become kids, they all have different personalities, and sometimes it is your fault that they are little assholes, and sometimes they are just the spawn of Satan and there is nothing you can do about it. The reason I am grateful for that day in the park is because when my thoughts about that shifted - everything else did too.

My desperation is gone. I have more options. I can date men that I may not want to marry, that I may not want to have kids with, build a life with or even have meet my parents.

Obviously I then immediately started dating a 22 year old. It has been quite an adventure! I have learned that the younger generation has relationships without ever seeing each other. We have had more conversations on-line than my last live in boyfriend and I ever had in person, we have had phone sex and shared our favourite movies, music and art through youtube and facebook. The computer is burning a hole in my eyeball, but I can't look away - waiting for the next instant message telling me how hot I am.

I had forgotten how wonderful young love can be. It's just like the internet - immediate, passionate, stimulating . . . and fleeting, but a ride that I am grateful to be on if only for a 'hot minute'. I am reminded that even though the men I date who are my own age will very rarely say or do anything that may make them vulnerable - that somewhere in them is an optimistic young man still looking for company, stimulation and a little lovin', and not a whole lot else.

Maybe I even now understand why old men try to date young women. It is not just about the ego, or power, or sex. It is about experiencing the parts of yourself that had gone to sleep. Your ability to freely tell someone what you think of them, and to know they are doing the same.

I like this guy, but I am not kidding myself. I know it won't last. That's ok though. I am going to take the spirit of this love and carry it forward into my next relationship. Who cares if I get lied to, stomped on or taken advantage of by those with as much or more baggage than I have. At least I won't be playing head games with myself (95% of the games people (and by people I mean me) play in relationships occur in our own heads -for every action there is at least 3 hours of preparation and planning - it's exhausting - I don't want to be guessing what a guy thinks, or wants, or who he wants me to be, or when is an appropriate time to text or write or call or show up at his work with a stylist).

ahhhhh - (that was me exhaling) - for all that this 'young love' has done for me in positive ways - it sure has made me aware of how f*&^ed up my behaviour has been with men in the last few years. A Course in Miracles says that 'all that is missing from a relationship is what you are not giving to it' - meaning that since you are the one who experiences feelings when you are with another person - you are the one who feels the pain when you withhold love, and you are the one who feels the most love when you give it, and, in fact, you ONLY really feel anything when you are projecting it onto someone else. When I remember that I no longer need to obsess over what to do, say and be - I just do what feels natural, and let the chips fall where they may. This is what we do when we are young and in love.

Remembering that I am the one choosing to withhold my love and excitement and happiness when I meet someone I like helps me to move toward loving someone with courage. I rarely show my interest in men because I worry that they will think I am just another desperate woman in her 30s looking for someone to stop her clock from ticking. Now that I am over the whole tick tock phenomenon it looks like I may also be ready to release the bondage I have held myself in - to show emotion, to get excited, and to be vulnerable. . . .

and for that, I am TRULY thankful.