Forever Grateful

November 25, 2014
Day 209

I was going through some old notebooks last night, something I do randomly now and then, and came across a passage I'd like to share here today.  I wrote it in November of 2004.

     "As Thanksgiving approaches, my thoughts turn to gratitude.  It's an often-talked-about but still much neglected emotion.  Say 'thank you', our parents taught us.  And a thank you we would say until the day came when we didn't need to be told any more.  But gratitude lives on a deeper plain.  It resides in our emotions in a very real place that knows when we have been given something we didn't necessarily deserve to be given.

     "We may expect a present on our birthday or on Christmas.  We may expect a tissue when we sneeze or a postcard from a friend on vacation, but do we deserve these things?  Do we deserve the many nice things we receive in our lives? 

     "Gratitude is the sincere 'thank you' from the heart that we really mean, the appreciation for an act or a kind deed, or for kind words that did not have to be done or said, no matter how much we have come to expect them."

As we approach Thanksgiving, now just two days away, let's start thinking and praying on gratitude right now.  Let's reflect not just on all the stuff we own and the blessings we have, but on the in-between moments too.  Gratitude is not just a reaction, an expected emotion in return for a kindness, but a proactive choice of genuine appreciation.  It neither requires nor deserves a kindness or blessing to come first.  It's simply grateful...for everything.