How Do You Measure Your Gratitude?

Thanksgiving is months away, and in reality, one day isn’t enough to consider all the ways you’re blessed. Even though I intentionally live in a state of gratitude and thankfulness, so many things slip between the cracks. Most people can tick of the quick list of things to be grateful for: friends and family, our homes, food, our car, computer, phone and a decent job to pay for it all.

But what about those things that remain so constant in our lives, those things that we’ve come to rely on and expect to serve us without fail? We can easily take for granted the infrastructure of our city, or country, the banking system, and satellites that allow us to use those wireless devices in our busy lives.

When even one of them is out of synch, we really feel the impact. If those systems fail, we have no control over regaining service.

I once had a pen-pal in India. He worked in a very large city and was well paid at his job. He was considered wealthy by many. At the time of our correspondence by email, I was a struggling single mom with little income. He considered me wealthy because we had internet service (dial-up) in our home. If I mailed a letter out from the post office, it nearly always got to its destination–for under 50 cents. He marveled at that too. Postage in India was five times what America was paying for a single letter and, according to my friend, they did not guarantee arrival.

It made me consider with regularity, all the services we have available. How well they work most of the time. How little we show gratitude for that service. That streaming music? That’s someone’s job. Your electric? Your gas? Even getting your mail. And if you’re paperless, God bless you for saving trees, someone is making sure that automated service stays functional.

As a team member of a deconstruction crew in New Orleans after the Hurricanes, we helped with removing damaged interiors. We stripped them down to the studs so that if residents wanted to, they could rebuild. What someone pointed out, was how much of the infrastructure had been damaged. Many areas were without running water or power. Without those systems in place, functioning, residents could not return. Even in the face of such enormous losses, the residents I spoke to were always so grateful that they still had their family members and their lives.

What does this mean for you?

It’s always a good time to develop an attitude of gratitude. Look around at all that you have, all the people in your life who love and care about you, all the services available to you. Make time over the next 30 days to show your gratitude to five people, either service provider, family or friend. Become aware of all that is at your beckoning at the flip of a switch or the press of a button.

What are the top ten most cherished people or things you’re grateful for? If you can take a moment to be completely honest with yourself, what top ten things do you take most for granted? Consider ways you can be more grateful for what you have. Write a letter, an email or a thank you note. Invite someone to coffee and share how valuable they are to you or your company. And for what it’s worth, thank you for stopping by to read this post. You make it worthwhile. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and being a faithful reader.