Brian Stokes Mitchell sings a beautiful song called Grateful, the lyrics to which we all ought to memorize and run through any time we begin to feel sorry for ourselves. He expresses gratitude for the basics of life and the things that make life worthwhile; I always want to be more mindful of my blessings after I listen to this song.
Well, I had a fantastic demonstration of gratitude yesterday! My friend and casual-Spanish-tutor at work asked me for a favor and when I agreed to do what he needed, he was so excited and thrilled and exuberant with his thanks, I was overwhelmed!! He said, "Thank you! THANK YOU!! I LOVE YOU!! YOU ARE SO AWESOME!! THANK YOU!!" Yes, as a matter of fact, he did say it in capital letters! He gave me an enormous bear hug and practically flew out of my department and back to his work. A little bit later, he saw me again as I walked through his department and again thanked me very enthusiastically. He offered to buy my lunch, which I told him was unnecessary, so he said, "I gotta do something for you. What's your favorite dessert? Anything?" Of course, I couldn't pretend not to love chocolate, so I admitted as much. He came back to my department later in the day and brought me a giant Hershey with almonds. I've never been thanked so much in one short day for anything in my entire life!!
I want to be as exuberant with my gratitude as Brandon was with his...even if a bit less boisterous. Y'know, it made me feel pretty good to have him express his appreciation with such relish. I want to give somebody else that incredible "Wow! You made my day!" feeling.
Who's with me? Let's all be full of gratitude and let's let it show!!
2 comments:
Actually, you are pretty great in the thankful department, and one of the most fun people to give something to because you are always enthusiastically grateful. You make me think about things though, and you are quite correct. I am going to practice showing gratitude to my kids when they do things for me. I think they would really love that. I have wanted for a long time to burn a "Gratitude CD" I will add the song you mentioned. What other songs do you know that I could put on it?
What a neat thing - so happy that someone was so grateful. Jed has told me stories of stopping to help people stuck in the snow and after helping them they don't even bother to say even a simple "thanks".
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