You have read the articles, perhaps attended seminars, heard it from various pulpits and lecterns and probably were raised on its importance as a child at your Mother’s knee. The importance of gratitude. The simple act of saying thank you from the heart. I raised my children to have manners, to be polite and considerate and to say thank you. When they were little we used “magic words.” Whenever they asked for something I would ask, “What are the magic words?” They quickly learned the power that please, thank you, you’re welcome and excuse me, possessed.
When my big kids were little I was doing my “magic word” thing and a friend of mine said, “Dana, you know they are just being parrots and they don’t really mean it.” To which I said, “That may be true, but someday they will, and they will have manners.” (Harrumph! How dare she criticize my methods!) But I believed in it and taught it and you know what? All four of my children have manners and have grown up to be well-behaved, loving, respectful, grateful adults. Not at all parrot-like, of which I am very grateful!
I am around junior high/high school students all day and I am often appalled at the overall lack of manners but, primarily and most importantly, the lack of thanks. I try to be a good example but I also do my version of the “Magic Words” in the hopes that it will rub off on them. Thanksgiving is not merely an annual holiday but should be a state of being. To be thankful should come as naturally as breathing. So why is there so little of it?
I work at being grateful. I practice it. I try to start each morning saying thank you. Some mornings are harder than others. On those mornings I am simply thankful that I woke up. That my eyes can see, that I can hear, that I can speak, that I can breathe, that my brain functions, that my limbs move properly, that I am free and fit and allowed the gift of another day. Other days it flows freely from my head and heart and I can clearly see the enormity of my blessings. No matter what, each day I am thankful and it’s a powerful, magical thing.
In November I usually do a list of the things I am thankful for. This month got away from me but the list rolls on. I am grateful for the things that I have been given that are undeserved. For my life, my husband, children, family, friends, faith, health, home, safety, plenty, for my freedom and for those who sustain it. And today I am thankful for you. For the fact that you are reading this on a vehicle that I have been given to express myself and share my life in an open and honest way.
I believe that if we are grateful for the smallest things that those things will be magnified and multiplied in ways we can’t imagine. But they will be magically and beautifully orchestrated to make our lives richer beyond our wildest dreams.
I say thank you from my heart to yours.
Sending love and light this Thanksgiving.
Dana
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