Jackie Kennedy, a billionaire, and a boll weevil: lessons in growing gratitude

This week’s message arrives a day early, so you can have fresh thoughts for your Thanksgiving table tomorrow.

This Thanksgiving weekend, many of us will be hosted by others. Some of us, therefore, will have thank-you notes to write.

If that someone is you, you can take inspiration from Jacqueline Kennedy. After her husband's assassination, she expressed thanks for the “hundreds of thousands of messages, close to 800,000 in all,” vowing to respond to every one of them.

The very idea that she could even imagine such a thing is incredible. But do you know what happened? It took the First Lady about ten years, but every single one of those 800,000 letters was eventually acknowledged.

Gratitude takes many forms, and today we'll explore three essential truths about this transformative practice.

✨3 Ideas

1. What Gratitude Looks Like

Gratitude shows up in countless ways, sometimes playful, sometimes profound. A little boy once wrote that he was thankful for his eyeglasses, explaining that they kept the boys from hitting him and the girls from kissing him.

Richard Chaifetz, who once pleaded for help to stay in college, later donated $12 million to St. Louis University in thanks. Classic wisdom teaches that gratitude isn’t about having; it’s about taking pleasure in what you already have. 

Gratitude isn’t a feeling; it’s a way of seeing.

2. What Blocks Us From Gratitude?

Why do we miss gratitude? Because we chase “more.” Many have had wealth, fame, power and pleasure -- yet died miserable. Billionaire J. Paul Getty, when asked how much was enough, answered, “A little bit more.”

The myth that things make us happy blinds us to blessings already present.

And numerous misconceptions abound -- for example, that our unhappiness is our own business. But like a pothole in the road, a sour disposition is a public menace, affecting everyone around us. In truth, gratitude restores joy and rejuvenates the soul.

3. Cultivating Gratitude

Count your blessings each morning. Gratitude is a spiritual muscle -- it grows with practice. Build “monuments” of remembrance, like the town of Enterprise, Alabama, which honored the boll weevil for forcing residents to diversify crops and prosper.

Don’t let favors go unacknowledged. Thank the person who prepared your meal, taught your children, or held the door.

And when we live with the attitude of being “blessed with everything,” we discover that gratitude transforms perspective and connects us to the Source of all life.

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📜2 Quotes

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
— Proverbs 17:22

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”
— Eric Hoffer

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❓1 Question

What is the one thing you can pause right now to truly savor and appreciate?

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A few years ago a survey of 65 nations found that the world’s happiest people lived in … Nigeria. Those ranked second through fifth were the people of Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico.

We Americans -- like fellow consumers in Europe, Asia and elsewhere -- spend gleefully on iPads, iPhones, flat-screen TVs, SUVs and all sorts of expensive items. We indulge, we gratify, and we expect to be the happiest people on the planet.

We can be happiness billionaires -- if we accumulate happiness, cultivated by investments of gratitude.

Until next time,
May your soul be inspired by your growing mastery of counting your blessings

Rabbi Ze'ev Smason

P.S. What is something you’re extremely grateful for? I’d love to hear what you highly appreciate.

P.P.S. Appreciate this week’s message? Forward it to a friend or send them a quick email