Gratitude. We have a whole holiday devoted to being thankful. We have kids trace their small hands on paper and write in each finger something they are thankful for. We hang their turkey creations in the kitchen or place them on the table. Some families go around the table, each stating something they give thanks for. For a couple of years, I can remember creating a chain of gratitude at my family’s Thanksgiving table. We each wrote something on a strip of paper and interlocked them all together. To see these links stretch from room to room filled you with a wonderful sense of warmth. We each held individual things close to our hearts, but when we put them all together, the abundance of things we had to be grateful for was made clear.
As we near the end of November, we encounter food drives and charitable acts that remind us of our own fortune and the special feeling this time of year brings. Maybe we shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving as one holiday but rather practice it as a constant state of mind. Being grateful is the most important thing to remind yourself of, and it can also be the easiest thing to lose sight of.
Harvard Health Publishing released an article praising gratitude and the positive effects it has on the mental health of individuals. Showing appreciation for what you have has many proven benefits—so many that it’s almost unbelievable. Could this one feeling, put into practice, be the key to helping us lead better, happier lives?
The best people I know and the people I admire most in this world have an astounding foundation in gratitude. They are warm, humble, kind and hard working. They have a magnetism that pulls others in because they radiate this sense of peaceful joy. Their own happiness and satisfaction is infectious and causes me to look inward and count my blessings.
I’m thankful to be surrounded by people who value gratitude. Looking back, I realize that I couldn’t always say that; but this university, in its unique and ever present bounty, boasts a contingent of the most generous, kind-hearted, grateful people I have ever met. For that, I feel so blessed. It’s easier to be thankful and remember gratitude when the people around you give you so many reasons to.
Life isn’t easy and as much as the holidays can be times of joy, they can also be painful and stressful for so many. This provides even more reason to find things to be thankful for. Whether it’s the family that shares our blood or the ones we have chosen to become family, there is nothing more special than feeling warm, welcome, full and satisfied with the things we have.
On Twitter, or sometimes even in the bulletin in church, I love to read the things kids say they are thankful for. It’s the perfect combination of heartwarming and hilarious. I smile at the sweet remarks about “Mommy” and “Daddy,” but even as I may laugh at young Evan who is soooo thankful for cheese puffs, I’m reminded of the incredible simplicity of finding joy and a reason to feel grateful for the tiniest things in life. In fact, it should be the smallest, simplest things that we remember to appreciate the most.
Whether it’s November 28th or February 4th or July 2nd, we can all exercise gratitude; and I guarantee we will feel so much better when we do!