I am a big believer in being grateful.
Gratitude can help us to feel content.
Gratitude can cause a perception shift that leads to growth.
Gratitude can help us to look outside ourselves.
Gratitude can create connection.
We celebrate Memorial Day this weekend and I was thinking about the reason we have this holiday.
It started after the Civil War when brother fought against brother and when the death toll was extremely high. National cemeteries were created to bury the dead. And then family and friends flocked to those cemeteries to decorate the graves of their loved ones and mourn their loss.
Memorial Day is a time to look back and be grateful for those who have come before and for their sacrifice serving in the military.
It led me to think, is being grateful enough?
What if those who served had thought, “I am grateful, I don’t need to do anything to show my gratitude,” and they didn’t serve their country?
Gratitude is a feeling, and feelings can be expressed.
That is what the people were doing when they took time, gathered flowers and other materials and visited the graves of their loved ones.
We can do that now.
We can also share the story of a loved one and their service with members of our family and community.
We can thank someone who is serving now.
We can attend a memorial or other service honoring those who went before.
We can express our gratitude for those around us now.
We can choose to do something hard that will help us to grow.
Gratitude is a feeling and I hope it is a feeling that propels us to an action.
I am grateful for you and all the members of our Live On Purpose Community who strive to be better by learning and doing better.
We will continue to show our gratitude by putting out content to help your parenting and personal growth. We will show our gratitude by connecting and helping as many people as we can in our community.
We will show our gratitude to those who are currently serving, and we will try to do and be better.
Dr. Paul