This weekend, if you’re Canadian at least, you get together with family and friends, eat too much, argue a bit and, hopefully, give thanks for all of the blessings in your life – big and small. If you’re an American, I guess you give thanks that Christopher Columbus got lost looking for garam masala. You get your turkey in November.
Regardless of what side of the border you’re on, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to remind ourselves of all the things to be grateful of. And, there’s nothing wrong with reminders. Reminders are practice; the more we practice, the better we get. My goal to have to every day be a personal day of giving thanks; not just reserved for one lowly day in October.
As we choose to pave our way to happiness, gratitude has to be in the foundation. To be able to recognize all that is beautiful and amazing and Love all around, is what gratitude is. From a bright red ladybug on a blade of grass to your dad paying to have your sinking driveway fixed, there are endless opportunities to be thankful.
What I think we overlook far too often, if not all together, is thanking you for being you. When’s the last time you looked in the mirror or sat in silence and said thank you for all the things you’ve done for yourself? My answer to that question is never.
We’re all full of such greatness; we’re great-full! We do so many wonderful things for our own well being and those around us, yet we probably very rarely pat ourselves on the back. I don’t mean in an arrogant or prideful way, but in a way of true gratitude. In a way of saying, “thank you, Me, for taking care of me”.
We exercise. We work overtime at our job. We split a piece of pumpkin pie with our mom. We give to charity. We don’t honk when we get cut off. We buy ourselves nice things we don’t need. We eat spinach. We don’t yell. We Love like we’ve never been hurt. And, we never give up on ourselves even if we want to more than anything.
We do all these amazing things for our self, and yet, for one reason or another, we come up a bit short with the thank yous. Maybe we just don’t think of it or maybe we don’t think we deserve it? Maybe we’re a little too hard on ourselves or maybe we have a bit of trouble of saying, “I Love you, You”?
This weekend, once you’ve slid into your after-Thanksgiving dinner sweat pants, take some time to think of all the great things you’ve done to be who you are right now. Try to show yourself the Love you deserve for being who you are. I promise that we all have more reasons than we can count to be thankful for us. When you start feeling that Love within, you’ll never be without.
be Love.
Feeling appreciated to someone including ourselves doesn’t necessarily require us to say “thank you” to that person or ourselves. Respect and treat those people and ourselves well in my opinion is more important. Whether that person saying thank you to me or not doesn’t really matter to me as who knows if they really mean it; but I can tell from their actions of whether they really appreciate of what I have done. By saying this, I don’t mean to be less polite. Saying thank you sometimes becomes a routine to me that I don’t really think about why I feel appreciated. When I feel it and I will make that person to feel my appreciation more than those 2 words.
Speaking of saying thank you to be ourselves. That is really important. I always think that things could get worse if I have made other choices. So I am glad and appreciated of where I am and who I am. I have been trying not to wear a mask in my life and show the people that I really love and care for my real side. In my opinion, showing them my real side is my love to them. I could have said different things and acted differently to make them feel good, but that is not love. Love can’t involve any fake emotion and it has to be real and pure. Anyways, I will continue to be the real me in front of those people that I really care for and love.
Happy thanks giving and thank you (I mean it as I have thought about it before I say it to you 🙂
Good night and enjoy the last day tomorrow before the end of our long weekend!!!!
“Thank you” can take as many forms as we can think of; a hug, a gift, an anonymous act of kindness or the words, “thank you”. As you said, Love won’t be fake. We don’t necessarily have to feel Love for a specific person, but we can show them appreciation and worth with Love. We can act towards them with Love in our gratitude.
There is opportunity all around us to show gratitude with and by Love. The flowers we smell, the sunsets we see, the music we hear; we can all choose Loving gratitude of these by simply thinking of it. That’s all it takes and the ability it has to fill your soul is immeasurable.
be Bright and Thankful. 🙂