I am grateful every day. For my life, my health, my children, hubby, fur baby, garden and my job. I mightn’t always sing it from the rooftops, but being thankful is part of my life. I like the reminder I set myself each Thursday – Thankful Thursday, the prayers and positive self-talk we include in our end of the day routine, and the America festival of giving thanks, counting blessings and being thankful.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday here. We don’t have the roast, the vegetables or the varieties of pie, although it sounds like a celebration I might like to adopt. Especially the pie part. Not that I need a formal occasion to remember to set an intention towards gratitude.

In contrast to the attitude of gratitude, there is the Christmas curse. I’ve referenced it in my Witch Wisdom series. That sense that there are forces beyond our control that have a hold on our lives, twisting and turning things so that life’s a little challenging. Things spin out of control. Dramas. Miscommunication. Falling out between family members. Relationship troubles. Maybe this just sounds like everyday life to you, what you’d expect in this modern-day existence. But what if it’s more than that? If there is a deeper reason behind the problems that cause anxiety, angst, regret and broken lies?

Intention, gratitude, energy, magic…elemental, emotionally charged. It’s all mystical, otherworldly, magic. Practice magic in any of these forms and there will be consequences. Magic comes at a price. You’ve heard that expression in countless books, movies and television shows about witches.

In my mind, the Christmas curse is like that. Sometimes, no matter what you do, someone, or something is determined to stop your happiness. The age old ‘good versus evil’ the universe trying to balance the scales. We aren’t all good, or all evil. Life changes us, sometimes.

The Christmas curse is more than a vague feeling that life is unfair. It’s a generational curse. Handed down through the female line.

Grandmother lost her husband early, leaving Mum with no father. Mum grows up and marries. Her husband dies early, leaving her daughters without a father. Try to break the cycle and live happily ever after? The curse will see to that. It mightn’t be a death, maybe a divorce, a falling out, a drug addiction, or an illness. A loss felt keenly every minute of the day.

Why specifically the ‘Christmas’ curse, and not your general, garden variety hex? This is where it gets personal. As a mother, devoting her life to love, look after and care for her children, to have her babies torn away from her, never to spend Christmas with them again. This is the Christmas curse.

Can it be broken?

Mothers everywhere, will never stop trying to break the cycle. We just have to believe, set intentions and maintain that attitude of gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy new release day to my two books (They release on Thanksgiving).