HELLO!

For what are you thankful? For whom are you thankful? When was the last time you told some—no, really told someone—how thankful you were for them? You know, I think most of us are pretty good at being thankful. But how many of us are good at expressing it, at showing it? I ran across a video on You Tube called “An Experiment in Gratitude/The Science of Happiness”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHv6vTKD6lg It begins by asking what makes you happy? It tells you psychologists have determined the leading things that makes us happy is gratitude. They began by testing several people by giving them a happiness test. Then they asked them to write about the person for which they were the most thankful. Then they asked them to call the the subject of their essay and read it to them. One person read it to his mother; two others read it to a friend; one person read it to her sister. One person read it aloud because his college accounting instructor, whom he admired more than anyone else had passed on. After they had made their calls, they were given the happiness exam again with the questions switched around and rephrased. The ones who wrote down something but could not talk to the person, their happiness increased doubled. For those who could talk to the person, their happiness increased more than nine times what it had been.

A spirit of gratitude, then, is not merely an act. It is a way of living. It is a way of being. It is an act of faith. Thomas Merton said that “to be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything God has given us.” Gratitude is living with the full realization and awareness of God’s presence in the world and what God has done for us. In that moment of true gratitude, you are grateful and accepting of everything around you.  And with that awareness, we cannot help but pass that spirit onto someone else, we cannot help but share with the world the wonder that God has showered upon our lives. Melodie Beattie says this about it: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend…turns failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow”.

So, for what are you thankful? For whom are you thankful? Tell them. Anne Lamott says, “when you are aware of all that has been given to you, in your lifetime and in the past few days, it is hard not to be humbled and pleased to give back.” That is who we are. Peace, Kevin

PS My friend Roy wrote me an email this morning to let me know October 10^th is National Hug a Kevin Day. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/at-G2Gv7Q2w I had never heard of this. Please don’t get any ideas…