What to do when you’re separated from your family on Turkey Day and everyone else seems to be busy making cranberry sauce with their moms or getting on planes, headed to their hometowns?

Look no further—here’s a list of tried and true tips:

1) Skip the turkey and order dinner on Seamless. Curl up on the couch and watch Blue Velvet with your boyfriend. Have some hot cocoa. Be grateful that you don’t have to wash dishes all night.

2) Take a three hour walk with your dog and let him take as much time as he wants to sniff tree trunks, roll around in the grass and say hi to other doggies. Treat him to some baked sweet potato when you get home—if he’s anything like my puppy, he will love it!

3) Meet your best friends at a diner and share a giant platter of silver dollar pancakes. Then go for a drink. Be thankful that you have each other—good friends are golden.

4) If you’re a New Yorker, go say hi to the turkey in Battery Park. Think about how awesome it is that he survived yet another year without ending up on someone’s plate.

5) Call your parents and let them know how much you appreciate them. Ask them to get on Skype, so you can see each other while you talk. Smile.

6) Do something nice for someone who doesn’t expect it. Buy a cup of coffee for a homeless person. Take the time to exchange a few words with the lonely neighbor who lives next door and always tries to talk your ear off. Say “thank you, have a nice day!” to that sleazy dude in the street, who just blurted out you’re the foxiest lady he’s seen all day.

Whatever you end up doing, don’t miss out on the opportunity to live in the moment and appreciate it for what it is. Show gratitude. Send some thoughts to those who are less fortunate than you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Malin Bergman is an ashtanga yogi, indie film and music aficionado, often-cheating vegan and failed ballerina, who sleeps like a starfish and refuses to accept that Pluto is no longer a planet. She loves green figs, anything crochet, horses, Coney Island, second-hand book stores and the guy who plays piano in Washington Square Park. She seldom leaves her house without giant shades, a mug of black coffee and her Chinese Crested darling dog, Angel.

 

 

~

Ed: Bryonie Wise

 Like elephant journal on Facebook.