Thanksgiving: What Are You Grateful For?

Like a lot of folks at this time of year, I’ve been think­ing a lot about gratitude.

I have so much to be grate­ful for. Through lit­tle more than dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time, I made a reward­ing and lucra­tive career from what was a tem­po­rary job. And now I’m enjoy­ing the free­dom of retirement—and, with a pen­sion and Social Security, finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty. I’m not wealthy by any means, but I have mate­r­i­al wealth beyond any­thing I could have hoped for as a young man.

I live in a great town. Precious loved ones sur­round me. The most won­der­ful, lov­ing, beau­ti­ful wife. Two out­stand­ing adult off­spring. A won­der­ful daugh­ter-in-law. A grand­son. Two siblings.

I nev­er wor­ry about food, shel­ter, or pay­ing the bills. That wasn’t always so, and it isn’t so for much of the world today. I try nev­er to for­get that.

Beyond all that, just the mir­a­cle of life—knowing that noth­ing is promised, but that each day I have the health and strength to get out of bed and live a pro­duc­tive and hap­py life—is amaz­ing. May I nev­er take any of that for granted!

Much research shows that a reg­u­lar prac­tice of grat­i­tude is ben­e­fi­cial for the prac­ti­tion­er and those around them. So, I try to do this reg­u­lar­ly. I jour­nal pret­ty con­sis­tent­ly, and a theme I often come back to is not­ing the things I’m thank­ful for.

I’m not a reli­gious man. I don’t believe in gods or fate or any grand plan. So, to whom should I express my gratitude?

That’s the won­der­ful thing about gratefulness—there doesn’t have to be any cos­mic agent to thank. I have many peo­ple to thank for the life I enjoy. Besides the peo­ple clos­est to me, there are mil­lions I will nev­er meet who work every day to make life safe, com­fort­able, and hap­py for oth­er humans like me.

Modern life as we know it would be impos­si­ble with­out the soci­etal struc­tures and insti­tu­tions that allow each of us to pur­sue our own voca­tions and avo­ca­tions, and for the col­lec­tive fruits of our labor to increase the thriv­ing and pros­per­i­ty of all.

Just the act of acknowl­edg­ing that none of us can sus­tain life as we know it alone is an invalu­able gift.

What are you thank­ful for?