5 Ways to Give Thanks This Year

Is your Thanksgiving the same old boring routine year after year? Are you ready to do something different? Here are five simple ways you can give thanks this year:

1. Donate food and clothing. Look through your Yellow Pages and you should find more than one charitable organization. Go through your closets and cupboards and gather up all your “extras” to donate to the homeless or needy.

2. Cook Thanksgiving dinner for a needy family. Chances are, you know someone who is having a hard time making ends meet this Thanksgiving. What better way to give thanks, than to cook a nice Thanksgiving meal for a neighborhood family who doesn’t have much.

3. Gather your family. Has there been a riff in your family this year? All too often, families who are in the middle of a dispute (usually over something petty) cancel their holiday plans. If this describes your family, have Thanksgiving anyway. Call and invite everyone and have a nice family dinner, for whomever decides to show up.

4. Do something nice that is unexpected. In this fast paced world hardly anyone expects kindness any more. Go out of your way to do something nice for someone else. Watch their reaction. If it’s an older person, you might get a smile and a gentle, “Thank you.” If it’s a younger person, you might not even get eye contact, but do it anyway. You’ll love the feeling you experience.

5. Say “Thank you.” Again, we get so busy with our full lives that we often forget to give a simple word of thanks to others. It’s almost as if “Thank you” has turned into a “dirty” word. Break this bad habit by intentionally looking for times when you can say, “Thank you.”

No comments: