Hey you! With the big head!  L’eggo my ego already, will ya?

In the U.S., it’s Thanksgiving soon. You will read a lot about gratitude, but today, let’s talk about ego. It’s that voice in your head that says:

“I’m right. You’re wrong.”

“What about me?”

“That’s not fair!”

I’ve had the most excellent honor of glimpsing the other side of grief and it comes with a lot of clarity. Clarity about who I want in my life and how. Sometimes when we decide who can be allowed in our inner circle, or be a member of our personal board of directors, our ego and its fantastic soap operaesque conversations come into play in our mind or live with other people. The inimitable Jonathan Fields of The Good Life Project got me thinking about this when he wrote, “What, you don’t need me?” post yesterday.

Step back for a moment, as you glide into yet another [possibly emotion-stirring-giant-food-coma-inducing] family meal this Thanksgiving, ask yourself what you want it to look like.

Maybe you don’t want Uncle Marty to be drunk.

Maybe you don’t want to hear your mother criticize your clothing, your spouse, your sexual orientation.

What if, you let Uncle Marty and your mom, do them.

What if you just did you.  Create a force field of love around you. What if those comments bounce back and when the most excellent rerun of the soap opera starts again in your head, you shut it off and tune in on your Lotus Flower Heart Channel. Or your I’m a Rock Star in this show. I’ve been incessantly listening to Stevie Wonder over the last week and have found that man to emanate so much love in his songs that even my neighbor at the office said that she likes hearing me sing. And it’s not because I have a great singing voice.  It’s because I am happy.  I am trying my best to let that big head full of thoughts float out through my ears and be replaced by Stevie singing, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.”