Thankfulness is a perception, and then an attitude, and then an emotion. It’s first a form of awareness, or recognition, and then a sense of appreciation. It's a deep and layered thing. Thanksgiving is the act of expressing that inner recognition and gratitude.

We’re surrounded by blessings all the time, things to be recognized as such, and appreciated. At its best, thankfulness is a joyous response of gratitude to these things. It's a recognition of goodness that then makes more goodness possible. So it’s not just responsive, it’s also creative. Let me say that again, and with feeling.

Thankfulness is not just responsive. It's also creative.

In fact, it could be that thankfulness is the most deeply hidden source for creative love, and loving creativity that exists.

What do you have to be thankful for today? How many blessings do you enjoy?

Conscious life itself is the primal blessing - a metaphysically rare and wondrous thing. We had no claim on this life prior to existing. It's the ultimate product of grace.

Be thankful, then, for your life, whatever it may look like at present, for it is always a journey in transition and motion that makes possible great things yet to come. 

Be thankful for your blessings. They help you to experience the nurturing side of love. 

Be thankful for your trials. They help you to experience the challenging side of love.

Both blessings and trials can be doorways into a fuller life, if used properly.

And that just means that even our trials can end up being blessings.

Thankfulness can be spontaneous, or it can be a choice. Either way, it will enhance your life, and your day. It will also touch those around you.

If you don't feel it naturally welling up in you each day, choose to embody it. Choose that way forward. It alone creates the best.