We’ve just come out of a season of thanks. A season to be grateful. A season of spending time with family and friends.
However, setting aside time at the end of November to do all those things seems odd if we are not doing them all year. It’s sort of like the proof I give for why turkey is not that good. If it is it’s so good, why do we only have it once a year?
Well, I’m sure some people have turkey at other times throughout the year, but you won’t see grocery stores running out of them in the middle of June, just saying.
Being grateful and being thankful should be daily occurrences. Unfortunately, some don’t believe they have anything to be grateful or thankful for. But with every breath of air we breathe, there is an opportunity to give thanks. There is a moment to show gratitude.
Now I will be the first to admit that some people can overbear with their thanks, and I get annoyed with multiple attempts to show gratitude in one sitting. There’s no need to continue to thank me over and over for the same thing to appease me. Some people do get a kick out of being thanked hundreds of times, and I guess that’s okay, but once is enough for me. If you’re sincere and mean it when you say it, that’s all that should matter.
Just as November is the month of thanksgiving, the month of December slides in right afterwards and is often known to be the month of giving, which should produce more thanks and gratitude.
Giving can do a lot for both the giver and the given. When one receives a gift and returns a smile, the giver feels the warmth of the smile and can have a sense of satisfaction knowing they caused that smile.
But giving can be tricky. As much as we think of giving as a selfless act, it can have selfish motivations behind it for some people:
- Boasting or gloating because you’ve made someone’s day
- Giving with the expectation of getting something back
- Giving to show how much of a nice person you are or how much money you can spend on others
Giving with the wrong motivation can be a dark whirlwind amid the sunny smiles.
So why give? Give because you can. Give because there is a need. Give because you may not know what it can do for someone else. And giving is not just money or gifts; it’s giving your time, giving an ear to hear, giving a shoulder to lean on when times are tough. But most importantly, give with pure motives and thoughts.
After all, it’s the thought that counts!
P.S. Deep-fried turkey is delicious.