It’s Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things, and more. Attention attracts gratitude, and gratitude expands joy. Please join me.

For years I've believed wholly, deeply, not-quite-religiously in the power of positive thinking. What you focus on becomes. What you resist, persists. I really do believe that gratitude is a powerful way to pivot from despair to repair to release to rejoice.

Sounds corny, I know.

But the weekly pause for gratitude helps to counter my small self and petty complaints, along with all the big world aches that crush the spirit. Lately, however, the big and small overwhelm my ability to “find the good.”

In the weary season, I am reminded of Sarah Cord’s description of gratitude:

“To be grateful is to live a full life. It is to know worry and accept worry. It is to shore up the foundations even in the face of the weathering forces of tragedies and time.”

For years, I’ve met you here on a weekly basis and often encouraged you to join me in Thankful Thursday. Just as love is a verb, thankfulness works best when it moves in action and awareness. In giving thanks, either privately or publicly, in solitude or community, the point is not to count your riches / blessings / advantages but to exercise the muscle that strengthens appreciation.

Gratitude is a practice, just as paying attention is a practice. The more you see, the deeper you look, and, in turn, the more you see.

When I feel waves of want — the crushing desire for more time, money, skill, ability, or a better world — practicing gratitude offers a valuable perspective shift. You train your eyes, and your heart, to “see the good.” And soon the exercise feels less a chore and more a pleasure. In this shift, want is the window that lets gratitude in.

What are you thankful for today?

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