Thankfulness...pt1

The week before Thanksgiving, and everyone's thoughts turn toward Thankfulness.  Which is a wonderful thing, because don't we all have something we can be thankful for?  As normal human beings, I think it is often easier to gripe about the "bad" things and not really look for the "good", so it is a good thing to have a day (which turns into a week, or even a month!) where we are called to concentrate on finding the blessings in our lives.
This week is also American Education Week, so we can spend the week being thankful for the wonderful teachers we had, and that our children have or have had.  Yesterday, the PTO Board at our elementary school hosted a "pot-luck" at the school for our teachers/administrators and support staff, and gave them a small gift.   Which was easy enough to do (even if I felt like it wasn't so easy in the days before it actually happened).
But what I realized is, that while I am thankful for the wonderful schools my children attend, and am (usually) in a thankful and appreciative thought-pattern about their schools and teachers, I don't often say it, or express it in other ways.   The smiles and genuine delight that I experienced yesterday, and the thankfulness from the teachers and staff for our one day of thankfulness to them made me realize yet again, how easy it is to say THANK YOU, but how wonderful and affirming it is to hear it.

So my challenge to you today (no matter if you are reading this during the month of Thanksgiving, or if you ran across my blog "just because"), is to find someone in your life that you are thankful for, for whatever reason.  And tell them that.    And, if you are a teacher or work at a school -- I'm saying it now.  THANK YOU for helping guide the next generation, no matter where you are.  I know it may feel like no one cares about what you are doing, but someone does, even if they don't yet realize it.