The action of giving thanks

We make reality in our world in three ways: thought, word, and action.

It’s good to think about gratitude, to think about all we have that we might otherwise not. The grateful mind helps shape our view of the world and deepens our appreciation of everything that we have.

It’s good to speak of gratitude, to give voice to the gratitude in our heads. Our words can inspire gratitude in others, a way to brighten the lives around us and remind our collective selves of what we have.

But this is where we often stop. We say our thanks around the dinner table on a certain day of the year, we eat the roasted beast, and call it a day.

Is that thanks enough?

The last piece of the magic puzzle is to take action, to express gratitude through action. If we acknowledge that the society around us, for good or ill, has created the series of actions and sequences that has given rise to the fortune we have (meager or vast), then if we can find a way to contribute back to it, that is acting with gratitude.

Maybe it’s a donation of your time, volunteering towards a worthy cause. Maybe it’s a financial or material donation, giving to others as you’ve been given. Even a small amount, a tiny spark, is enough to start a fire under the right conditions. Maybe it’s the adoption of an animal or the delivery of a dinner to someone who can’t provide for themselves.

Whatever the form is, action completes the process of bringing what’s inside of you out into the world. Action takes intention and spoken commitment and brings it to fruition as something tangible, something that will change your world.

After you express the thought of thanks, after you speak the words of thanks, find a way to commit to the action of thanks and in doing so, give someone else a reason to be thankful as well.

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