Being thankful!

Contributed by Robin Jones

It’s that time of year again, a time that starts with Thanksgiving and usually ends up after the new year.  We sit, we ponder, we find the things we are thankful for.  We share those thoughts with friends and family, we post on Facebook or send out a tweet. While there are many people who can take up pages filled with all of the things they are thankful for, for some it is a struggle to find even the most minute thing to be grateful for. They feel the burdens of life crushing in on them and wonder if there really is anything worth mentioning.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I read an article by David G. Allan, CNN entitled, The year of living thankfully.  In his article David writes, “You may not have everything you want or even need, but that probably leaves buckets — nay, container ships — full of tangible and conceptual items for which to be grateful. Things can always be better, but they can always be worse. It often depends on how you look at that proverbial glass of water.

To get in better touch with gratefulness, all you have to do is find easy ways to count blessings more often than, say, over an annual turkey dinner. Keep them boiling on the front burner of your mind, and you increase your appreciation of life.”

 His article is filled with wonderful suggestions on how we can approach life finding the blessings and joy rather than focusing on the negative.  In today’s world when there is so much happening that can draw our attention to the negative, I suggest giving this article a read and challenge yourself to  think of how we can change our perspective to see the positive.  When people start to see the positive in their lives it bleeds out on to those they come in contact with.  Wouldn’t it be lovely to meet a friend for coffee and discuss how your bucket is overflowing rather than how angry all the minutia in life makes us?

 I wish each of you a happy holiday season, but more importantly I wish you each a life filled with joy and gratitude.

 To read David G. Allan’s article

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