Do you keep a thanksgiving journal? If not a written page, at least a mental one. A place where you daily write down things for which you are thankful. If you did, you might more often end your day with a smile, rather than a frown.
Why is it we human beings remember bad things to complain about easier than good things to be thankful for? Why do so many conversations sound as if the complaining conversationalists have been sucking on lemons rather than the sweetness of thanksgiving remembrances?
One evening Mother Theresa and several other sisters went out to search the streets for opportunities to serve. Soon, they came upon four people in terrible need. Mother Theresa turned to the other sisters and said, “You take care of these three and I will take care of this fourth child of God for she seems the most miserable of them all.”
And so it was that she began to overwhelm the woman with love and care. She first fed her and then placed her fragile frame on a bed to rest. The woman had already begun to smile, but now her smile grew radiant. She reached up, took Mother Theresa’s hand in hers and spoke two words…just two words, "Thank you."
And then she died.
It was then Mother Theresa began to ask herself what she would have said had she been in such a condition and someone was taking such care of her. She wondered, Would I have simply asked for more? More food? More of something to ease the pain of dying? Would I have been filled only with concern for myself and what I could get? Or, would I be like this woman who simply said thank you and died with a smile on her face.
I like to watch the evening news. When the kids were growing up we seldom saw the evening news because we made a habit of eating together, and talking together and sharing together.
Things weren’t quite as hectic in those 50-plus years ago with kids going in 50 million directions and so most of the time we managed it. What we always managed was what I called Thanksgiving time.
Everyone, each child, and we parents too, had to share something good about someone we knew and were thankful for, being specific about what had happened that day. Put ourselves in a state of thanksgiving for the good in people. No one was allowed to say anything bad about anyone. We would not have boiled and fried neighbors, friends or strangers as part of our evening meal.
Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book and many other famous books and poems, was at one time so popular he was receiving the equivalent of $10 per word.
A group of college students who thought this somewhat extreme sent him a ridiculing letter with 10 dollars enclosed. A note folded inside the $10 bill read, “Please send us your best word.”
Kipling then proved he really knew the true worth of words. He simply sent back a note that read “Thanks.”