Hey, it’s November and whenever November rolls on in, I usually need to figuratively slap myself in the face; get my head out the muck and grime of everyday living and taste the proverbial coffee and smell the roses. November is a good time to remember it ain’t all bad. And, things could be a lot worse.
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What is gratitude? Simply, by the book Gratitude is a noun.
“ . . . the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”
. . . and if you do not believe me, sometime when you’re feeling especially magnanimous look it up yourself (and then look up the definition of magnanimous because if you do, you may find it easier to be grateful.)
Yeah. We need more kindness. Less spitting, less animosity and if we all look inward a bit to find something to be grateful for, maybe we’d be less angry.
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November is a great month to get down with your grateful self. So, what’s there to be grateful for? How about this: It could still be January, and the year 2020 could just be starting. That would suck. I am grateful there’s less than 10 weeks until we can chime in a brand-spanking-new year.
Be grateful the General Election is over and not still weeks away. Can I get an amen brothers and sisters to the end of political ads on TV and the internet? Hallelujah and praise the sweet baby Jesus we’re four years away from another presidential election.
Thinking about it, it’s kinda’ groovy to think we have an opportunity as a nation to move forward in a positive direction. I don’t know if we can, but we do have the opportunity to.
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I saw this thing, somewhere that went something like this, “For just 24 hours try not to complain about anything.” Sounds like an interesting challenge. Maybe I will give it a whirl.
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Why, when asked by well-meaning folks, “How are you doing?” I mostly answer, “Better than I deserve.” Why do I do that?
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I am always thankful for the men and women of the armed services — past and present — for performing their duties. In the same vein, I am thankful for the men and women who serve on the local law enforcement agencies. And, still further in that vein, I’m grateful for the front line responders, who this year, really had their jobs cut out for them. Stupid pandemic. Stupid COVID.
I am grateful for so many things. Electricity, running water, indoor plumbing and better medicine to name a few. Before I fall to sleep at night I try to run through a litany of things I am thankful for, like for every person I have ever met. Yup, it’s true. I say a little silent prayer for everyone who has been put before me, good, bad or indifferent, because (hopefully) I have learned something from them, if only patience or humility.
I am super thankful for employment, which has allowed me to feed, cloth and shelter my family. And, I am beyond grateful for my family and for the opportunity to be a father to sons, Shamus and Sean.
I’m lucky to have friends, readers and to be in this community, located in the state of Michigan in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Last November 1 someone put out a 30 day challenge. The person challenged herself and others to be grateful for at least one new thing each day during the month of November. November she said was the month of Gratitude, at least here in America as every year we celebrate Thanksgiving.
I guess what I am trying to say, if we look for things to get angry about, we will find them and gee-whiz, guess what? We’ll be angry. Conversely, by looking for something to be thankful for, we’ll find those things, too.
So, what are you grateful for? Let me know.
And, I will leave you with this . . .
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melodie Beattie
Send your commentsand gratitudes to DontRushDon@gmail.com

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