{"id":1489,"date":"2016-11-24T10:19:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T15:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2016-11-24T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T16:00:11","slug":"gratitude-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1489","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Photo by Satya Murthy<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Gratitude.<\/p>\n

It can change your brain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It can make you healthy.<\/a><\/p>\n

It can make you happy.<\/a><\/p>\n

But if you buy into gratitude for those reasons, I think you\u2019re missing the point. You may not even be expressing \u201ctrue\u201d gratitude at all.<\/p>\n

Gratitude has been defined as the \u201creadiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.\u201d I like that. Recognizing and returning kindness. We often talk about the former \u2013 recognizing. We rarely think of the latter \u2013 returning. Gratitude goes beyond acknowledgment. It is an obligation \u2013 no, a true desire \u2013 to be compassionate towards others.<\/p>\n

Today is Thanksgiving Day. One of my favorite holidays. I know there are the banal and commercial elements surrounding Thanksgiving\u2019s origin, propagation and celebration. But let\u2019s set the storefront parade, football games, and Black Friday aside for a moment and think of what it means to be truly thankful.<\/p>\n

The beauty of thankfulness is that it is something that everyone can enjoy. From the most popular, affluent and talented to the forgotten, impoverished and plain. Thankfulness is accessible to anyone regardless of origin, condition, and belief. To be sure, gratitude is much more difficult for some than others. Hard for someone in Aleppo to be thankful. Or those who suffer from illness. Or those who have lost jobs, possessions, health, loved ones … perhaps even themselves. But gratitude isn\u2019t comparative. It is not about being thankful that you\u2019re not like the other. It is about being thankful for who you are what others have done for you regardless of station. It is about showing appreciation for others and their acts of kindness both large and small.<\/p>\n

I have been blessed beyond merit because I\u2019ve merited little. So thanks. Thanks to all of you out there who have looked past my and others\u2019 faults and have shown grace and kindness.<\/p>\n

Thanks to those who\u2019ve suffered through much and still persevere. Thanks for another day to try and the opportunity to do something \u2013 even a small thing \u2013 that makes things better. Let\u2019s try to be thankful not for the sake of how it might help our brain, our health, or our happiness. But let\u2019s be thankful because it is a proper response to the life we\u2019ve been given.<\/p>\n

Happy Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gratitude. It can change your brain. It can make you healthy. It can make you happy. But if you buy into gratitude for those reasons, I think you\u2019re missing the point. You may not even be expressing \u201ctrue\u201d gratitude at all. Gratitude has been defined as the \u201creadiness to show appreciation for and to return…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,1],"tags":[172,131],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1489"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}