“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving is.” William Arthur Ward

I don’t assume that people aren’t thankful. I probably used to. Maybe some aren’t. But, in general, I think most of us are thankful. We understand the blessings we have received. For the majority, I’d say we are thankful to be living in a heated house, having heat and more than we can eat, having a bed and a pillow for our head.

Sure, there are things we all want, things we all wish we had. Everything in our lives is not perfect, nor will it ever be. But, we’re thankful for where we are and that where we are is not where we were. For many of us, where we are today is quite a bit better than this time last year. Not for all, I know of several who are going through tremendous pain right at this moment. For them, thanksgiving may be something that brings frustration and discouragement. But, even in the greatest pain, many of us can find things to be thankful for.

But, do we express it? Do we verbalize it? Do we tell our friends, either in person or virtually?

I mean, we are pretty quick to vent our frustrations. When things aren’t going our way, when we don’t get what we want, when life kicks us in the gut – we don’t hesitate then to verbally express our internal state.

But, for some reason, we’re reluctant to share that we’re thankful. We don’t vent our thanks.

What if, we just need to put a cork in the complaint bottle and uncork the thanks bottle? What if the reason it’s so easy to express thanks is because that’s the bottle that’s uncorked and it’s the one we shake, it’s the one the world around us shakes the most? What if we stopped letting outside influences keep our complaint bottle stirred up and bubbling over, and instead we just put a cork in it? What if we uncorked that thanks bottle, and grabbed it by the neck and just started vigorously shaking it?

We have a plethora of abundance to be thankful for. The bottle is full, the gratitude is there, we just need to start letting it out.

Let’s start letting it flow!