I want to give my children the gift of gratitude.
I want them to wake up and be thankful for all of the good things we have in our lives. I want them to be thankful to live in a place where they know that how far they go in life is in large part under their own control.
Because our attitude influences everything we do, touch and who we are.
Evidence of a Life Well Lived
My son told me he is sorry that things are hard now and asked if there was anything he could do. I smiled and said no, because things aren’t hard, they are challenging.
That is not spin, it is truth. Transitions can be awkward and this is no exception.
I showed him the picture above of the things we sold at the garage sale and pointed out that is evidence of a life well lived. We didn’t sell those items because we needed cash to survive, we sold them because it was time for them to be used by other people who needed them.
I reminded him about why I sold a pair of shoes to the homeless guy who showed up. It was a question of dignity and that meant it was better to charge him a couple of bucks than to just give him the shoes.
The best part of the conversation was seeing the understanding in my son’s eyes- he got it.
It Is Not Always Easy
It is not always easy to be grateful, even when you have ample examples of how much worse it could be.
Family and friends have been fending off rockets and wondering if the bus they are boarding is going to be visited by terrorists. It is not something I worry much about here.
I see the homeless guys on the side of the freeways and hanging out in all sorts of other places. I don’t worry about being homeless. Sometimes I get irritated because I don’t have many of things I want, but I have most of what I need.
So I try to remind myself about the reasons why I should be grateful and to think about ways to give that gift of gratitude to my children.
Thank You
I don’t know if I will get back on here tonight or not so this might be my one opportunity to say thank you to you and to wish those who celebrate Thanksgiving a very happy and healthy holiday.
Life has been busy lately so I haven’t been around to comment and visit as much as I would like to but I hope to adjust that soon. Got a lot more to share and say but I am off to play Chess with my son. Someone has to show him that his old man may be a step slower on the court but hasn’t lost a thing on the board. 😉
Happy Thanksgiving Jack. Let us all be thankful even to the littlest things we have and to every person who are part of our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving Sarah. I agree wholeheartedly.
The lesson you taught your son about the homeless man and dignity? Thank you. I learned from it too.
I am glad. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Been a long time since we got to see you round here. How are things?
Thanksgiving was stress-free and that’s the way we like it. 🙂 Sorry that I haven’t been visiting and commenting. I do try to read your posts when i am on my phone but commenting from my phone is a bear because of auto correct… I simply gave up.
Stress free is the way to do it. I love that. I understand about the challenge of commenting with a phone, not easy.
I rarely do it myself, so if I visit via phone I really need to want to make a comment or it might not happen.
I don’t know if it’s natural for kids to have gratitude on their minds? I insist on family prayer and blessings on meals before we eat mainly because it slows us down to reflect and make an accounting. I listen to their prayers. Sometimes they are repetitive. Other times they are very insightful and humble.
Have a good one, Jack!
Hi Betsy,
That sounds like a good way to get the kids to slow down and think about what we have and how life could be otherwise.
Thank you for all your support and awesome stories Jack.
I am terrible at chess, but not so bad on the court 🙂
Hi Jens,
Thank you. I appreciate your support too and am glad we are friends. I bet you are better at chess than you realize. Practice goes a long way there.