An Attitude of Gratitude

I love Thanksgiving.  I mean, I have not always loved Thanksgiving.  When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was just this weird holiday stuck between October and December where we got out of school.  My parents would put us in the car early on Thursday morning to travel to Quitman, Texas to see family.  There, we would eat food until we were about to puke before falling comatose on the couch.  So many people would be in my grandparent’s house that it was like a sauna.  The problem was you couldn’t go outside because it was freezing.

As a teenager, I remember vividly the discomfort of being filled to the gills with food, hot, tired, and grumpy. 

Comedian Kevin James said it best, “Thanksgiving, man.  Not a good day to be my pants.”

Perspective is everything.  My perspective of Thanksgiving is very different now than as a kid. 

Now, I know it isn’t November right now.  In fact, we are right at the beginning of summer.  So, why all of this talk about Thanksgiving?

For one, it is the end of the school year.  Students are now on summer break.  Teachers are finally able to take a breath from the fast paced events of the year.  Administrators….well, we are still plugging away right now looking forward to a few days off in July.  

But fewer emails during the day and events at night affords us the opportunity to slow down and think a little more.  At times, we even have the opportunity to think a little differently.  This week, I was reminded yet again that Thanksgiving isn’t just an American holiday that shows up each November.  It is an attitude.  It is a state of mind.  But maintaining that mindset can be a challenge.  

At times all of us struggle to see the “forest for the trees.”  We can get so wrapped up in the details that we fail to see the bigger picture, don’t we?  I mean, I fall into this trap all the time.  Especially towards the end of a school year. 

Gratitude helps us to make sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision of hope for tomorrow.  Over the next few weeks, I want to share a few things with you that help bring this thought to life.  Thoughts that can help us focus our efforts and energy heading into these all important summer months.  

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”  I experience great JOY when I think of each of you and the impact you have on the lives you are blessed to influence as leaders in this world.  

I’ll share more with you next week.  Let’s create our own grateful Thanksgiving this summer!

Until next week!