Thanksgiving Message for Women Entrepreneurs

Earlier this year my youngest sister traced our family tree back to having two relatives on the Mayflower. Tracing our lineage forward our ancestors never left the New England region even up to our grandparents residing in Johnstown, New York near Albany.

In 2005, a year before my father passed away, we spent Thanksgiving in Maine. I remember waking up to a light snowfall with the smell of fresh coffee and a house filled with my three youngest siblings, father, stepmother, husband and two sons. It was one of those magical days when your heart sings and knows it will remember why the day was so special. I now know my “ancestors spirit” was probably around us in New England.

My stepmother and I were in the kitchen making up a homemade butternut soup recipe as we tasted it as we were developing it. My sons were downstairs in the basement running around to the music of my brother’s drums and guitar playing. My father and husband were watching football. It was as close as you could get to a Hallmark Thanksgiving.

Now 16 years later my father’s laughter is in my memory, my stepmother can’t cook because she has Alzheimer’s Disease living in a nursing home, my brothers and sisters live in different parts of New England and I await my two grown up sons to fly home together tonight from New York City where they work and live. Time passes.

My story is the same as your story but slightly different. Memories of Thanksgiving past creep into our hearts especially if we have lost a loved one this year or if our family dynamic has changed. It is a reason I like to think back to the bravery of the newly arrived pilgrims and their willingness to sit down with a tribe of people they didn’t know to share a moment in time filled with appreciation for being together and the food prepared, then we can do the same.

As women entrepreneurs we are blessed every day to live the life of our dreams which may be different yet similar to the early Americans who believed life could be better in a new world. We are fortunate to “live our dream” making our own money our own way and sharing it with any tribe of people we serve.