Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and soon we will all be gathering from near and far, at grandma's, mom and dad's, family or friends, in honor of our country's ancestors, the Pilgrims, and together re-enact the first Thanksgiving, with all the fixin's.

We know from history that in getting to America, there was no "Easy Street". We know that in the course of the 65-day voyage to Cape Cod, five of the Pilgrim passengers died. After arriving at Plymouth Harbor or Cape Cod, there were two to three deaths a day for the first two to three months. And after the first year, only 52 of the 132 people who sailed on the Mayflower survived.

The Pilgrims' survival is largely credited to a Native American, named Tisquantum, or Squanto. A member of the Pawtuxet tribe, who had been seized for slavery by John Smith's men in 1614, Squanto somehow escaped and made it back to his native land, where sadly, he found most of his tribe had died of plague.

If it weren't for Squanto, the odds of survival for the Pilgrims would likely have been dramatically reduced. It was because of Squanto's help that it was possible for colonial leaders and Native American Chiefs to establish a friendly relationship. His friendship also brought survival skills to the Pilgrims, teaching them how to plant corn, and where to fish and hunt. As a result of this relationship, we have the first recorded Thanksgiving in 1621, a feast shared by Pilgrims and the Pokanoket tribe.

It is our human nature to want to travel on "Easy Street". If we were truthful, it is even what we expect. We would like to expect that we could get though the day without inconvenient interruptions, get through relationships without conflict, and get through life without having to work so hard.

But in reality, maybe the so-called, inconveniences and interruptions, are really gentle reminders; cues to pay attention to ourselves and listen to what our hearts, souls, and bodies are telling us. Are we caring for ourselves and what means the most to us in our lives, in a way we want to?  Or are the pressures of life and so-called expectations, pulling us away from ourselves and what matters most to us? Asking ourselves these questions can help restore our heart, soul and body's balance, giving us permission to reduce expectations in favor of caring for this one precious life and what we value most.

Attending to our days in this way is to practice what is considered the blessings of life. Focusing on gratefulness, the blessings of life are described by David Steindl-Rast, as "those that can only be achieved when we pay attention to what is before us. And it is in genuinely seeing what is before us that we can have true appreciation and love for the ways we have been blessed."  Easy Street? No, and it's also one less traveled, to boot!

Info on the Pilgrims: Wikipedia