Today is Thanksgiving.  Ok, today is the day after Thanksgiving but I wrote this yesterday and didn’t post it because I was enjoying my Thanksgiving with my wonderful family.  And that brought to mind this:  the older I get, the more I am convinced that one can never have enough thankfulness.  Gratitude is always in short supply.

This is too bad because I’ve found that …

Gratitude is the necessary first step to joy.  True joy comes after you are able to say “I’m so lucky to …” or “I’m so happy that …”.  I cannot imagine being joyful without first being gracious and thankful.

Gratitude takes you outside of “self”.  It is good to be kind and compassionate.  It is great to be able to appreciate and be thankful for the kindness and compassion of others.  Thankfulness fuels both humility and love.

Gratitude enables you to appreciate everything.  I am thankful of my many blessings.  But I am (or should be) also thankful of my even more abundant shortcomings.  I learn from both.

So thank you.  Thank you to all those who have been so kind, gracious and generous to me over the years.  Thank you to all of those who have done so to others.  We have all benefitted from your love. Thank you to the uncaring and unkind.  Thank you to the ignorant and abusive.  You have tested and tried us and we benefit from that too.

We can never have enough gratitude.

Hoping everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.