I was listening to NPR radio while I had to go out to get paper towels because our housekeeper hadn't informed us we were out. (Likely because she was worried about her own 3 kids this Christmas) so that's fine.
So, I went out and got paper towels after being informed by my first year college student daughter that, "I'm not going out right now" as she walked in a circle on her trampoline that she hadn't been exercising on since she went away to college. Then I listened to this program on NPR radio in the car on how important gratitude is and I decided to call my wife and to tell her how grateful I was for her courage since June when she had a full knee replacement surgery and sent our last child off to college this fall. (Empty Nest Syndrome). I also thanked her for trying so hard to make this a great Christmas for everyone.
She was crying because she had forgotten to put gelatin in her pumpkin chiffon pie and so it was useful that I expressed my gratitude to her on the phone.
Then we discussed being verbally grateful to our college age 18 year old daughter who got a scholarship (a merit Scholarship) to her college even though her grandfather and we had saved enough money for her college since she was born and we were grateful that she has never gotten into trouble or anything which would harm her or us. This went quite well until she suddenly started walking away and we said, "Where are you going?" and she said, "I've got to go to the bathroom" and we laughed.
Yes. Gratitude is the Motor of Life!
When I was little I was always taught to say "Thank You" to everyone who helped me in any way. Though I likely didn't mean it at first I began to see how almost everyone lighted up and smiled and was happy when I was grateful to them.
By the time I was in my teens I was an expert at gratitude to my parents, to my friend's parents and to my girlfriend's parents. All parents loved me because I was polite and grateful and a perfect gentleman.
That didn't mean I didn't get wild and into trouble when I wasn't around everyone's parents. It just meant I was a two ministers' son and I was trained right to always be a gentleman.
I learned to thank police when they gave me a speeding ticket. (This was really hard). But necessary. Because especially when I grew up if you were not polite to police you might be shot (accidentally). It's less that way now.
So, the habit of thanking people and being grateful has served me well throughout my life and into college and into business. If you aren't grateful and don't thank people and be helpful to them you aren't going anywhere in life.
This is a given.
So, having been trained this way I'm grateful for having learned to be grateful as a child. Now it's just fun to watch people's faces light up when I'm grateful. It always makes us both feel much better doing this.
Gratitude is the motor of civilization itself
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