What are you thankful for?
This question is given extra attention on Thanksgiving day in the United States. Along with Seth Godin (see video linked to his free PDF “The Thanksgiving Reader” shared in his blog post below), Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of the intentionality around slowing down, sharing precious time with loved ones, and feeling gratitude for the gifts in our lives. I love sharing thanks to and gratitude for others. Seth’s blog post of November 24, 2016, Choose better, highlighted that we have a choice in being “more honest, more caring, more generous.” I will also encourage choosing more gratitude. His blog is linked below but is brief and to the point:
“More honest, more caring, more generous.
It’s all a choice, isn’t it?
We can choose to dream better, connect better and contribute better.
Sometimes, in the rush for more, we get confused about what better means, and how attainable it is.
If you are lucky enough to be with family today, I hope you’ll get a chance to use our beloved Thanksgiving Reader around your table. It’s a free PDF that you can print out and use for group readings.”
The Thanksgiving Reader free PDF that Seth provides in his post has been used by our family for several years. The readings around the dinner table are a highlight of our holiday each year. One of my favorite readings is about gratitude:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.
It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
• Melody Beattie •
Page 32 of the reader provides a wonderful list of questions to discuss thoughts on gratitude:
- What’s the value of gratitude? Why does it even matter?
- Why aren’t people, especially Americans, more grateful?
- What can we do to feel grateful the other 364 days of the year?
- Are older people more grateful than younger people? Or is it the reverse?
- We all know the value of connections, but where did the barriers come from and what can we do to topple them?
- Who’s the most grateful person you know? Who’s your gratitude role model?
- What is something—a conversation, advice you received, etc.—you became grateful for only well after it occurred? Why did it take you so long?
- Have you lived a life that deserves gratitude from others?
https://thethanksgivingreader.com/
