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From Me To You . . . November 2026
Somewhere in your kitchen, on the back of an envelope or in the notes app on your phone, there is a list. It may say turkey, cranberries, pie crust, and the name of the cousin who cannot eat gluten. Lists are everywhere, the holidays are made of lists, and so, if we are honest, is most of life.
I have to be honest, I am a fan of a good list. Lists keep us accountable. They remind us who we promised what, and they spare us the midnight horror of remembering the rolls are still in the freezer.
There is real satisfaction in crossing something off your list, a small drumroll of triumph that no other activity quite matches. I will admit that I have been known to add a task I already finished just so I can get the buzz of having achieved something - knowing that there is one thing less to do.
But a list has a dark side. It never says well done. It only says what is next? Somewhere around the third week of November, the list stops being a helper and becomes a tiny, paper-thin boss who works non-stop and does not accept resignations. If we are not careful we can start living for the check marks, and miss the people standing right beside us.
So here is your permission slip. Let some of it go. Nobody at the table will notice the missing garnish. Nobody has ever said, they had a lovely evening, but the napkins were not folded into swans. Choose the three things that matter, do them well, and let the rest fall off the page.
And then, when the list is quiet, make room for a different one, the kind that cannot be written down. Some people we love are no longer at the table. Some live too far away to reach, and some are estranged, a distance that can ache more than miles. This season, set a place for them in your heart. Tell one story about them, even if it comes with tears. Love does not need a seat to stay present.
Thanksgiving is not a deadline. It is an invitation to notice what we have, and who has shaped us. Put the
pen down. The pie will be fine, and so will you.
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Catherine Uretsky
Editor in Chief, Estrella Publishing