Thanks

Thanks, more formally Thank You.  It is an expression of gratitude.  Gratitude is the expression of being thankful or of receiving and returning kindness.

After almost two years of this coronavirus crap, and such radical division between people and groups over practically any issue, one can wonder what it there to be grateful and thankful for.  

I, unfortunately, cannot answer that for you.  While we may agree on certain things for which one is thankful for, others we may not, or as is more likely, that particular person, thing, what have you, is important to me but not you and vice versa.

There is more and more research that indicates that even small acts of being grateful lead to increases in general well-being, positivity, and happiness.  Just by acknowledging that you are grateful, thankful, appreciative of something.  Which in turn allows you to see and appreciate more activities, words, people, interactions or what have you that you are thankful for.

A day in which we celebrate Thanks, at least in my nation, occurs tomorrow.  My list is prodigious, I have a cornucopia of people, pets, books, music, and activities for which I am blessed and so very grateful.  If you are reading this, and if this short missive has moved you in some small way, I am grateful that I have your interest, and that I am grateful that I may have made a positive difference in your life, if even only for a moment.  

Moments are all we have.  They occur and then become memory and feeling.  Depending upon their significance, the memory may be short and the feeling practically forgotten before even a few more moments have come and gone.  But those that impact is the most inform who we are and who we can and will become.  Those moments are not our whole identity.  Those moments are not that which will forever define us, unless we allow them to.  I saw a saying the other day, “The past is good to visit, but it isn’t a place to live.”  And for that advice, and my continued attempts to live in the here and now, the present moment, I wish you a wonderfully joyous Thanksgiving Day, and I hope that you recognize all that is in your life that you can be grateful for (mistakes and failures suck, but they can also be something to be grateful for, due to the lessons, inspiration and, potential impetus to strive to try again, to do better, to refine our plan(s) and reach for our dreams.