Thanks-Giving can be held on any day that you decide to be grateful.

This next Thanksgiving, (Which is any day next week) gather a number of people and create a list of all the things you are grateful for, like forks, they’re cool. Buttons and zippers are great (except after dinner), indoor plumbing is wonderful, air conditioning in the car, and your oven of course. But really there are so many wonderful things that we take for granted and even complain about. Like stamps…How dare they raise the postal rates to thirty seven cents. Spend thirty seven cents and someone will carry your letter to anyone anywhere in America, thousands of miles my letter gets carried right to the house of my friend, how dare they raise the rates like that. 

Every piece of knowledge in the world exists on the internet and at the touch of a button it’s right there in front of you for free. How do you like that? Yet we complain about slow modem speeds.

E-mail costs nothing to send and it’s instantaneous anywhere in the world, wow, and yet somehow I manage to complain about spam or something. Cars are great, and open up the whole world to us yet we complain endlessly about them and gas prices. 

A Fiji islander was interviewed as to what gives him joy. He said the sunshine gives me joy. Then after a moment he said, the rain gives me joy, when the fog rolls in it gives me joy. When the sea is calm like glass it gives me joy. Then he said, when the storms come with their beautiful power, that gives me joy. Wow he’s got it made. So do we, we have so much that we have become numb to our unbounded natural wealth.  

Those of use fortunate enough to live in the mountains are really rich. Evergreen and the surrounding areas are as close to heaven as you can get and still live in a physical body. Deer and Elk , foxes, coyotes, black squirrels, incredible beauty everywhere  we look and yet oftentimes we miss it because instead of seeing it we are worrying about work, politics, or the future. So lets decide to wake up for thirty days into our wonderful abundance. Let that gratitude list grow. Read it and add to it every day. Get creative. Keep your list going until the end of the year and see how many you can get. Then on December 31^st celebrate a New Year that is guaranteed to be full of all this wonderful stuff and more, because now you will be aware of this fantastic world we live in.  

I heard a great story from a man who was leading a personal growth seminar. He was greeting the guests and a man in a wheelchair came up, the man was joyously happy and said he was glad to be there and looking forward to the event. Then another man approached who was in great shape but obviously very unhappy and upset. The facilitator asked, “what’s wrong?” and the man launched into an angry tirade about how he stopped for lunch at a fast food place and they forgot the fries. Sound familiar? I believe the quality of life is made from what we decide to focus on. If you focus on the good that’s what you will have, so focus on what’s great about things instead of the little glitches.  

Think of the ones you love and for a month decide to remember only the wonderful things they do or have done. Do this with everyone and especially your spouse and kids. Make a resolute decision to  think this way and your world will forever be changed. The goodness you focus on will expand. You will see a miracle, and you will realize your power to create the world that you want. Do this with as much diligence as you have previously given to seeing the flaws. Overlook the flaws. 

For a month decide to overlook them everywhere and see what happens. And purify your speech. Don’t speak the complaints, it makes them grow. If someone starts going off about how terrible things are, change the subject, ask them a disarming question like; What interesting things have you been doing lately? This will move their mind off the negative. This is an easy way to change the world. Change your world first and do it as if it’s the most important thing in your life. Because it is.