Thanksgiving, 2013
In this season of Giving Thanks, we are once again reminded of the power of our gratitude. Yes, your appreciation, your gratitude is powerful! It’s the power of increase in action. In fact, one of the definitions of “appreciate” is “to increase in value.” For example, art can appreciate in value. The dollar can appreciate in value and so it’s worth more. So, the truth is that when we give thanks and appreciate someone or something, not just with our words, but with our hearts, we add value.
Take a moment right now and think what that would mean to your relationships, to your health, to your sense of self-worth!
Many years ago, I said a distracted good-bye to my husband as he left for a movie he wanted to see (and that I didn’t). I didn’t know that it would be the very last good-bye of our marriage – the very last time I would see him alive. For on that evening during the movie, “Legends of the Fall,” he fell asleep and had a fatal heart attack. After his death, I was filled with remorse that I hadn’t taken the time to tell him I loved him and was grateful for him enough. This incident marked a tremendous turning point in my life. I learned the importance of showing my appreciation and love now – now while I can – now when I am with that person. Now.
Tell your dear ones now that they are loved. Show them that they are important to you. Notice their strengths. Value their presence in your daily life. Recognize their worth. Be generous with your smiles, your hugs, your good words.
Of course, we don’t need to lose someone important to us to learn the value of appreciation. Each day we have many opportunities to feel grateful for the lives of those around us – not only our family members and friends and pets, but also our co-workers and those who serve us at the grocery story, the gym, Trader Joe’s, and all the places we frequent during our days. These people that we may not know, but who cross our path as we move through our day, can also be the objects of our appreciation. It is a universal need to be noticed.
Have you ever felt invisible?
Many years ago I was doing a temp job as a secretary in an architectural firm. It was a high-pressure work environment and most of the employees were too busy or too stressed to take the time to say hello, to smile, let alone say thank you. But there was one woman, who no matter how busy she was, took the time to say thank you to everyone. She made it a habit to notice the new girl in the office and to show her appreciation for even the smallest things. This woman made a difference in my life because she appreciated my life.
We don’t have to know someone to show someone. Take the time today to appreciate those whose lives add value to your life. Notice them. Show them that they matter to you. Thank them for their service. All of us want to know that our presence is noticed, valued, and appreciated.
Appreciate your own life. Your life is precious, not only to you and to others, but to God, out of Whose Life we were created. Actually, God IS our life!
For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.— Acts 17:28
I offer the following exercise to increase your ability to appreciate your life. Many of us were not taught the practice of giving thanks for ourselves, and if this is true for you, I invite you to take just one week to do this and then see how much more alive you feel, and how much more loved and appreciated. During each day, focus on just the one thing suggested and find as many ways as you can to give thanks and appreciation.
Sunday: Give thanks to God for being God. Without God, the Great Presence of Living Love and Intelligence, there would be nothing at all! And God continues to maintain the order of our world and to create through each one of us.
Every good and perfect gift is from above,coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,who does not changelike shifting shadows. He chose to give us birththrough the word of truth,that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.— James 1: 17- 18
Monday: Appreciate your body. Go to each part of your body and thank it for doing its wonderful work. Speak to it with words of love and if there is need of healing, speak words of encouragement and gratitude.
Tuesday: Give thanks for your mind. Celebrate your ability to reason and to think and give praise for the brain’s ability to direct the many activities of your body. Give thanks for your God-given ability to know and to understand.
Wednesday: Appreciate your capacity to love. Without God’s love there would be no love, yet because we are created in His Image and Likeness, all we need to do to experience Love is to open our hearts and share it.
Thursday: Feel grateful for the 5 senses.
How wonderful it is to taste hot spiced cider, to feel the cooler fall weather, to touch the soft fur on your cat’s body, to see the beautiful trees in colors of bronze, yellow, and red, and to smell the woodsy outdoors!
Friday: Appreciate your work. Whatever it is that you do, give thanks for it, for being able to do it, for the gifts you can share, for the new things that you learn about yourself in doing it.
Saturday: Feel grateful for the many things you usually take for granted.
Look around the room you’re sitting in now…feel grateful for the desk, the lamp, the phone, the books, the computer, even the room itself. As you move through your day, make it a special point to notice all the many things that make up your environment and be grateful for all of them.
Your gratitude is powerful. You have the power to add value to your own life and to other’s lives with your heartfelt appreciation. Perhaps that was what God was doing during creation: appreciating!
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.— Genesis 1: 31
Happy Thanksgiving, Dear Friends~
I appreciate you!