Thanking on a Day of Thanks

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to spend a couple weeks in Florida with my family. As everyone who knows me knows, I am absolutely, 110% in love with Florida and our adventures down there. Those two weeks were exactly what I needed. It was shortly after a very tough break up with a boy I was very much in love with, the death of my beloved cat, and many other life struggles. Getting away to the coast was like going away to rehab.

Each night we went out or spent the evening driving home from a meal or adventure, I would search through m iPod and find a song to listen to. Eventually, I would come to this song every time. It's from the Australia soundtrack.



My particularly fav part was from 1:21-2:00. I listened to this so many times while in Florida. I will be the first to admit that while with my family there I would sometimes listen to this song and cry, not because I was upset or depressed but because I was so thankful for such a wonderful family who cared so much for me. Now when I try to listen to this song, I can't do it. Unless I'm in Florida, I can't listen to it.

Fast-forward to 2010. Today at work, I realized how important thankfulness really is. I would greet my customers and chat with them about holidays, occasionally asking what they were thankful for this year. Oftentimes, I would hear families, homes, girl/boy friends, mothers, fathers, etc. When I said goodbye and wished them a happy thanksgiving, they would smile back and, for once, genuinely wish me the same.

I saw their thankfulness and I felt it in return. You see a lot of times we get so caught up in the moment, in our lives, in our pursuits for happiness, that we fail to see what we should really be thankful for. I don't know if it's that I have so little this year or just that I've been away from home for so long but this year I am more thankful for my family than I am for anything else. There is nothing I would want more, no new house, no new car, no dog, no million dollars, than to be with my family. I would rather see their smiling faces, hear their shouts and yells, laugh at the ridiculous jokes, and eat food while we all poke fun at each other than have all the material positions in the world. I would rather be thankful for a million more of those Florida moments where everything comes together in a moment of contentment than a million dollars.

So this year, when there is so much I could be envious of, I will instead list the wonderful things I do have because, after all, it's those things that are making up my life and giving me happiness.