Happy Gratitude Day — AKA Thanksgiving Day
Today I want to share with you my Attitude of Gratitude story. For the past 28 years the word gratitude has taken on a different meaning than it had for me up until that point. In my healing recovery process I learned that an attitude of gratitude could shift me from anger, fear, guilt, shame, loneliness, hopelessness or any other uncomfortable emotional state into a state of hope and excitement.
Since 1981 I have seen November as Gratitude Month and the week of Thanksgiving as Gratitude Week and Thanksgiving Day as GRATITUDE DAY. So on this Gratitude Day I sat down and made a long list of everything I’m grateful for in my life. This took quite a while as I do have so much to be grateful for.
What I am most grateful for today is my relationship with Ellen, my wife and partner of almost 22 years. I make it a point to tell her everyday how grateful I am for her. Many times she laughingly asks why am I grateful. The other day when she asked me that I put together my “short list” of 25 reasons I am grateful for her and gave it to her. I say short list because there are not enough words to express how grateful I am that Ellen is in my life.
I want to share a story that my Karate Sensei (Teacher) Richard Kim would tell us when we seemed upset or down. He said that when something bad happens say “Thank you adversity for yet another test. If you break a toe, be grateful it wasn’t your foot. If you break your foot, be grateful that it wasn’t your leg. If you break your leg, be grateful you didn’t die. And if you die, be grateful that you don’t have to finish the rest of this grueling class with me.”
So today when life happens I need to remember to say thank you for yet another test and learn from it. One of the most challenging life events for me was a bit over two years ago when my father died. As I came out of the shock/denial of his death I had a hard time finding anything to be grateful for around that. Fortunately, I have many recovery support people in my life and I started to get into a lot of gratitude for the time I had with my father; especially the last seven years of his life when we became so much closer.
That’s when I sat down and updated Bob’s Story and posted it on my articles page as a testimonial to this wonderful father of mine. Please check out Bob’s Story that you can download for free on our Article page. My niece also helped the healing process by putting together a PowerPoint presentation of dad’s life that we played after dad’s funeral. I still look at that PowerPoing presentation when I am grieving and missing my dad.
So today I’m wishing you all a Happy Gratitude Day (AKA Thanksgiving Day) and hope you can find many things to be grateful for today. No matter what you are experiencing; work hard to acknowledge what you are grateful for. An attitude of gratitude can turn a dismal day into the best day of your life if you let it.
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