Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” —Charles Dickens

This is the week where all of us are supposed to take a little time to be thankful for all of the blessings in our lives. I just can’t help but wonder if too many of us have forgotten how to actually be thankful for anything. 

We’re all so stinking busy with everything these days. There just doesn’t seem to be much if any down time wedged in our 24/7/365-running-like-chickens-with-our-heads-cut-off lives. Even when people get a chance to sit and relax they are on their phones plugged in and actively engaged with everyone else and all of the stuff they bring to the table. 

I think there’s a price to be paid for staying plugged in each waking moment. Sometimes it’s a good thing to unplug and just be. 

As the old adage goes, “sometimes I just sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.” There’s nothing wrong with just sitting. In fact, add a good dog to the equation and just sitting can turn out to be some of the best minutes of your day. 

I just can’t help but wonder if because we are all doing everything all the time if we’ve deconditioned ourselves to actually remember how to be thankful for what we have, including the moment sitting right here in front of our faces. 

I know we live in tough times. Nobody gets that better than I do. I know there’s a lot of bitterness and anger and strife with each and every day of their lives. 

And to be sure, as I’ve said many times before, every single one of us is dragging a back of junk behind us. There’s no way around the fact that life can at times be hard if not downright cruel, and all of us have stuff we’re dealing with. 

But even with all of the stuff that can cast a dark cloud over our existence there’s always something to be thankful for. 

Do you have clothes on your back? 

Do you have shoes on your feet? 

Do you have a roof over your head? 

Do you have a pillow to put under your head at night? 

Do you have food in your stomach?

Do you have people in your life who care about you? 

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then you have a lot to be thankful for, probably more so than most people on this poor planet. 

But how often do you allow yourself to see as much? See, if you live a life where you have some gratitude for the simple things in your life, suddenly every day becomes a day of thanksgiving. 

And the odd part of being thankful is this: it seems the more you appreciate what you have now the more things seem to come to you to be thankful for. I mean, if you’re not thankful for what you have in the here and now it’s quite likely you won’t be thankful for what you’ll get in the future. 

In other words, be thankful for what you have and you’ll end up getting more. If what you don’t have is more important then you’ll never be happy because you’ll never have enough. 

Here’s the other part of thankfulness: it has a way of changing the way you look at every moment of every day you live. You suddenly can find joy in the simplest of jobs. And you start looking for ways to turn even mundane moments into opportunities for good. 

In other words, just finding a way to be appreciative of the smallest of blessings in your life can change your life in a big way.

Sometimes finding those blessings can be hard, I get that, too. But if you can’t find any then more than likely that’s your own fault. Life is, after all, more times than not what we make of it. 

Gratefulness has a way of supplanting fear and creating a life that is suddenly full of abundance. Why? Because nothing is taken for granted. In my opinion, that is one of the greatest elements to remember in living a happy, fulfilling life. 

Remember – life doesn’t owe us anything. It is up to us to take it as it comes and be thankful for the good things to be found in it – and also that things are no worse than they already are. 

There’s no doubt we’re all dealing with our fair share of bad stuff, but every single one of us is more blessed than we’ll ever deserve. If only we could live our daily lives with that thought up front and center with every waking moment we have, what a different world this would be – starting with each one of us. 

Denzel Washington, who I wish would run for president, once said:

“Give thanks for blessings everyday. Everyday. Embrace gratitude. Encourage others. It is impossible to be grateful and hateful at the same time.”

Amen, Denzel. Amen.