I find it fascinating how the public seems fascinated with The Day of The Dead (Día de Muertos), especially after Disney’s Coco was released. Just the other day, I went to Target and I saw some calaveras and catrinas. For me, it’s even more fascinating because neither my parents nor I celebrated Día De Muertos. It wasn’t, until I became an adult, when I started getting more into it.

The part of Día de Muertos that has always resonated with me was of respecting our ancestors, those people people that preceded us. Respecting the dead was always something that was instilled in me from a young age. Where some people are freaked out by cemeteries, I always felt comfortable visiting my deceased relatives. I was able to talk to them about what was going on in my life to maintain connected with them. To this day, when I get a chance, I try to make it out as often as I can.

Just the other day, I was watching one of my favorite CW shows, Arrow. In the episode, “Welcome To Hong Kong,” I heard a really good quote from Lila, “We honor the dead by fighting for the living.” I thought that the quote resonates with this piece. Sometimes, I think that we we hyper-magnify our day-to-day problems and see them as gigantic, when they really aren’t, comparing to some of the sacrifices of our immigrant ancestors. For some of us, we don’t have to go that far back to know what I’m talking about.

When I came to this realization, it blew my mind wide open. It really helped to put my daily challenges in perspective. While that inner voice in my head sometimes makes me think that a bad day at work is the end of the world, at least I don’t have to worry about providing for my family. On one side of my family, they were farmers. If they didn’t grow enough, then there was nothing to eat. I am blessed that I can go to a grocery store and get anything to eat.

So, if like me, you’re connected with your ancestors and remember the family stories or even if you’re not, realize that you are so very blessed and have more going for you than you realize. If you want to give thanks for what they did for you, then take the blessings that you have and produce something from them. Give your all at work to provide for yourself and loved ones. If you have an idea for a business, go out there and do something with it. If you think that your day is bad, look for that one or two things that bring you some happiness and thank God or the universe that you have it.

HONOR THE DEAD BY GIVING THANKS.