What's so great about thankfulness?

     I woke up yesterday morning next to my wife and I was so thankful she was in my life.  She is a
loving and caring woman who makes me a better man.  This thankfulness continued and I thought about the other people in my life, mostly guys I have come to know over the years:  Joao, Bruce, Don, Bart, Matt, John, Greg, Gordon, Tom and many others - all good men who try to live their lives for the lord.  And I am so thankful for them. And when I thought about this, I thought, I DO have friends.  (Sometimes I tell myself the lie that I am alone and I have no friends to share life with me).  This thankfulness directly counters that lie. 

     Thankfulness is such a powerful thing.  And it is a powerful ally against negative thinking.  After a day started with thankfulness I was joyful throughout the day.  And I went to bed and told my wife that I noticed that I was really happy during the day and she agreed.  I think I was actually smiling as I drifted off to sleep.

     The bible and especially Jesus, reflects the power in thankfulness and entreats us to follow a path of thankfulness.  This is old wisdom, born out of the many years man had been on the planet. It changes the way we perceive the world and the people around us.  People we know through thankfulness grow closer to us and we develop positive relationships with them because of the posture we take.

     Thankfulness even changes our memory of people we have known.  I had a terrible fight with who I considered to be my best friend for 27 years and our relationship could not sustain our differences.  But I don't dwell on the loss.  I am thankful for all the good years and good experiences we have had together.  And if someday we reconcile, I will be in a better place to do so.  From this simple practice.

     Most of all, I am thankful for my family, who helped me, stood beside me, on a long journey though an illness that onset in my late teens.  I still deal with it today.  But my family was always there, encouraging me, supporting me, coming to the hospital and visiting me.  And many of my friends did too.  I am thankful for the love they all showed me.  It has born in me a love for others, and for the world we live in.  And something happened after a short stay in the hospital recently.  I became thankful for my own life.  Saw the value in myself.  Saw how my life mattered to the people around me.  And this directly counters a view that I have had most of my adult life: that if I were to cease to exist, or to have never existed at all, people would get over it and move on with their lives.  I thought that I didn't matter.

     But thankfulness and the practice of it, is dispelling this lie for me.  And when I do it, I am so much happier.  Less troubled by the bad news of the world.  Less troubled by my own faults and failures.

     What are you thankful for?  Your job, your friends, your love interest, your house, your dog?  I think everyone would be better off if they focused on these things.  Not on what we don't have.  That is a lie in our culture: that you will be happier if you acquire things you don't have.  Our entire media banks on selling us this lie to induce in us the will to spend money on their products.  It is very damaging to the human psyche.  Thankfulness counters this.  Think on the things you are thankful for regularly: you are diving in to a deep pool of ancient wisdom.  You are bettering your life.  (And the lives that touch yours.)

     There is great power in this.  Take a minute now and think on the things you are thankful for.  Then notice your mood.  Hasn't it improved? If you are Christian, you can make a regular practice of being thankful in your prayers.  It will change your life for the better.  Something so simple can be so powerful.

     Finally, I want to say, I am thankful for you, my readers.  You give me a purpose and inspire me.  Thank you for that, I hope I can inspire you too.