So if you are here reading this, you are invited. What might you say? Is this a homage to the Irish? No, not really.

This is actually about connecting with the spirit of Thanksgiving. And what does that mean in 2025?

It's about the sacred space each of us carries inside. That private connection we make with the people, culture, and land we are in right now!

See, the pioneers of America left their families and roots to venture into an unknown land. They were willing to wander the wilderness in search of something else. They were explorers seeking what was the great unknown.

And it is these people who established what the United States is. They celebrated a day of Thanksgiving with whoever they were surrounded by. Mixed nationalities celebrated with one another as a family and a new tribe.

Who you were with represented a greater family we are all connected to in this present time. Yes, you and I, we are the ones right now making this life in this brave new world where so many of us have left families and our roots to find something, or maybe take the journey for the sake of adventure.

And like the Irish that set out to sea to find a new world, we will sing sea shanties, laugh at the fools we all are, and cry for the pure emotional sake that we all feel so much. Oh, and maybe drink a bit of the whiskey.

Come one, come all, let us celebrate a bit and be grateful our ships made it through the rough storms of another year.

MATTHEW JOSHUA BIGBEE