Just a reminder for everyone…
Welcome to the Thankfulfor.com blog
grat⋅i⋅tude noun: the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful.
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What are you thankful for? Tell us on Thankfulfor.com.
Last month we were in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and did an interview with popular blog & podcast Manic Mommies. It was a fun interview to do with Manic Mommies founder Kristin, but even more fun to see all the Manic Mommies fans come to Thankfulfor and start posting! We’re thrilled to have all of you here.
If you’re interested in hearing the interview, you can listen here:
Today I noticed a beautiful family & friends theme on Thankfulfor.com - a huge percentage of the posts mentioned spouses, kids, parents and friends. If you haven’t thought about it yet, take a quiet moment and just ponder the people you treasure in your life. Send a mental ‘Thank You’ to them and then consider posting it in Thankfulfor, and sending them a note or giving them a call this weekend.
Thank you for being here.
On This Winter Day…
One of our favorite community members who hails from Maine shares how life continues to prosper deep into the snowy winter. We’re thankfulfor such vibrant posts.
Revamped Resolutions: Unforgettable and Everlasting
It’s a well-known saying that no man is an island, and as part of a community every individual has a role to play. By fulfilling these parts, we enable others to live safe and comfortable lives. Many people use New Year’s Resolutions to improve the self - resolving to lose weight, get rid of debt, to exercise, to spend time with family. These are valid, and I’ve made these resolutions myself many times. However, this year I’m taking my resolutions one step further - by focusing on helping others. As a member of a wonderful community, I feel that I (and my family) can improve it by doing more. My kids came up with the idea of doing a new resolution per month, and here is what they came up with:
January - Assist in Church activities.
As a volunteer for your local parish, you can accomplish quite a lot. Churches and religious organizations need all the help they can get with their numerous projects. We’re signing up to help with the Family Picnic - the kids love to set up and run the games!
February - Volunteer at your local day care.
We’ve got a community-run day care center, and it’s truly a gift for low-income families that need affordable childcare. Volunteers can teach and run groups if they want, and I’m planning to teach young ones how to put together a simple, nutritious meal. And then we’ll run around and get all silly. I can also bring my youngest child to day care which is a wonderful help.
March - Coach a Little League team.
Indulge in America’s favorite past time by offering your services to a local Little League team. Who knows, you might make it all the way to the championships! Nothing beats the high you get from helping those tiny tots fulfil their dreams of being the next big baseball star; and who knows, you might be living your dream as well.
April - Be a mentor.
Most schools have what they call a big brother/sister program, whereby adult volunteers spend time with children of various needs. Some of these are loosely organized, and some communities have tightly run and focussed programs. One of these programs is Spark, a non-profit organization devoted to reducing the high-school dropout rate by pairing a teen’s interests with local business and crafts-people. By volunteering your skill once a week, you can help a child to either feel appreciated or to realize a dream.
May - Help local businesses thrive.
See if your community has any budding local businesses and assist them in any way you can. You can go door-to-door with their products or even hand out flyers. By offering these services, you can help others sustain themselves and their livelihood.
June - Volunteer at a senior center.
Bring a touch of joy to the elderly members of your community. By devoting your time to our beloved seniors you help give them something to smile about. Check with your local home for the elderly about their needs for volunteers. It takes very little to make a person’s day.
July - Take part in community organizations.
Become more involved, join the PTA or be an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. Immersing yourself in community organizations helps you be more aware of what is happening in the community, builds your business and personal networks, and you can do your part to maintain the local economy.
August - Volunteer at your local hospital.
The medical arena is one location that requires a lot of assistance. Inquire as to their peak season and sign yourself up to help. You can even help to organize events for the hospital, such as blood drives or sports events for the disabled.
September - Start your own fundraiser.
Organize your own personal event, something fun and worthwhile and get everyone involved. You can then donate the proceeds to any deserving community organization. Get creative, be it a bake sale or a yearly fair, it will certainly be a win-win situation for everybody!
October - Participate in a clean-up drive.
Help to keep your community clean and beautiful by devoting your time to any local clean- up drive. This involves such activities such as litter picking, tree planting, and even creating a community garden. Get to know other community members and bring beauty to your home at the same time.
November - Adopt a poor family.
Invite the less fortunate into your home this year. By allowing others into your life you gain perspective on many things, and it opens your mind and heart to these often-neglected members of the community.
December - Organize a gift drive.
Enlist other members of the community to pool gifts to give to less fortunate children. Coordinate with your local shelter or orphanage for this project.
There you have it, one whole year of countless ways to pay it forward. Don’t hesitate to diverge from the list, with your drive and creative mind, who knows what other good deeds you can accomplish. Keep on giving!
Image by beX out loud
Guest author Maxine is a dedicated mother who works to instill in her children the ideas of giving, charity and frugality so they have a solid foundation for their future. When not with her family, she works for Treetopia, a seller of artificial Christmas trees. The Christmas tree sale this holiday season was particularly busy but a great reminder for her of the need to balance work and family.
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The Gifts We Receive
Whatever is given is a gift—even the most difficult experiences and traumatic events can be seen as Wake-Up calls, and therefore gifts. And the appropriate response to any gift is gratitude. In the depth of our heart, we can turn fear into courageous trust, agitation and confusion into stillness, isolation into a sense of belonging, alienation into love, and irrational reaction into Common Sense. The creative imagination of gratefulness will suggest to each one of us how to go about this task. - Oprah.com
I see many people post about difficult situations on Thankfulfor.com. They post about how things could be worse, finding the best in a terrible situation, how they learned from difficulties and about personal growth. I know firsthand how easy it is to be thankful for beautiful days, sunshine, health and great times with loved ones. I often forget to post about the challenges in my own life from day to day, but I should. Everything that comes into our lives has its purpose - even the things that don’t seem positive. The fact that we have a life right now, at this moment, could be considered as the basis for that gratitude, right?
This week when so many of us are knee-deep in holiday planning and events, take a moment and think about what you’re grateful for, beyond the easy ones. Here are some of my own today:
- I’m thankful for the challenges I face each day as I grow my businesses - they make me stretch and grow in new ways.
- I’m thankful for the people in my life who aren’t necessarily my biggest fans. They force me to look hard at myself and also serve to remind that the world doesn’t revolve around me.
- I’m thankful for the bills from all the utility companies that I received today because they make heat, power, television, phones and all of those good things possible and easy for me, and I’m particularly thankful that I can pay those bills.
- I’m thankful for the 9-10 hours in an airplane yesterday because I rarely have that much time to myself without interruptions and I was able to reflect on the past year and do some personal writing.
Now it’s your turn. What seemingly negative things in your life are you thankful for? It’s not easy, but sometimes when we really allow ourselves to look at those “darker” areas, we can find a spark of light. Please post it on the site and let us know.
Gift Box image by sparkieblues
CommentsHappy Thanksgiving, Everyone.
Wherever you are, whatever Thanksgiving means to you, remember to be grateful.
And as Marcy reminded us in Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving special, it’s a time to be thankful for each other.
Thank you for being here. Have a safe and special Thanksgiving.
CommentsThe 2010 Gratitude Index
We’re happy that our growing community at Thankfulfor.com has been flourishing for just over a year now. The daily posts, photos and feedback touch us everyday, so we decided it was time to take a closer look at what we have - and to actually see what our community is most thankful for.
So, we anonymized a percentage of our public posts and analyzed the data - and the results are in! We’re thrilled to announce Thankfulfor’s Gratitude Index for 2010.
Our analysts identified over 40 separate themes, which we then grouped into 10 overarching topics, as seen in the diagram (beautifully illustrated by JESS3). From a sampling of twenty-five thousand posts, we can see specific trends of the things people feel most compelled to post in their gratitude journals on a daily basis.
At the top of the list, the winner by a very large margin, is people. Within this category, friends topped the list, but family was a close second. “People” also included random people who crossed paths, good samaritans, volunteers, teammates, American soldiers, medical professionals, teachers, celebrities and others (even a few politicians!). Over 45% of all the posts sampled expressed gratitude for someone. That warms our hearts for sure.
Our second broad category included posts that referenced some type of personal experience or things that referenced “self”. Almost 20% of posts included the description of some life experience including enjoyment of holidays and new experiences, or things like the ability to do something, courage, personal opportunities, memories, inner strength, accomplishments, talents, intuition, good or improving health, intelligence, intuition, resilience, and much more.
Almost the same percentage of posts included gratitude for life itself including themes such as hope, inspiration, beauty, the universe, time, moments, weekends, weekdays, spirituality, religion and god.
Fourth down on the list are things. The majority of this category is a natural, as it is what sustains life and is a large part of most people’s day to day activities - food. And drinks too. Never a day goes by without posts with detailed descriptions of fresh fruit, vegetables, gourmet meals, comforting tea, celebratory wine or desserts and much more. But this category also includes possessions such as clothes, cars, comfy beds and couches, homes and backyards, bicycles, running shoes and much more.
You can read about the rest of the top 10 results and download the entire report from here: http://thankfulfor.com/pages/gratitudeindex
During this season of gratitude, we hope you take a few moments to tell us what you are thankful for, and perhaps consider making it a year-long habit. Next year at this time, as you have your entire 2011 journal to look back upon, you’ll be thankful you did.
All media inquiries - please email jc@thankfulfor.com.
CommentsTweetsgiving 2010 - Support Change Makers
For the third year in a row, nonprofit Epic Change is focusing on 3 days around Thanksgiving (Nov 23rd, 24th and 25th) to focus people’s gratitude on a specific cause. For the last 2 years, they focused on school children in Tanzania. This year, they have decided to focus on raising money for three “changemakers”. Learn a little bit about them here:
Mama Lucy Kamptoni - Tanzania - The woman who inspired Stacey Monk to start EpicChange in the first place and raise money for the school kids of Tanzania. She continues to make change for children and their futures in Tanzania and inspire others around the world.
Mike Halley - US - Mike was selected by the Epic Change local volunteer community in Tampa, Florida as their local changemaker of the year for 2010. Mike is a retired US marine who helps fellow soldiers find peace when they return home from war. By training rescued service animals, he helps brave servicemen and women manage their PTSD, trauma and disabilities.
Subhash Ghimire - Nepal - a recent college grad, and a Clinton Global University award winner, Subhash will use the funds to build a “Peace School” in Arupokhari, his village in Western Nepal, to help over 250 children (between the ages of four and fifteen) who are affected by the violence of civil war.
Subhash shared his story in his own words here - I thought it was inspirational and representative of the dreams many change-makers have.
Dear Friends, we need countless stories to move our world forward. We need schools that teach our students to action; we need education that not only teaches us to be good citizens but also go out and make a difference. We need idealists; we need dreamers, thinkers and leaders. My education has made me look beyond and contribute towards the greater good of the society. As President Obama once said, “ every generation we have an obligation to work on behalf of the next generation.”
Some may have called me naive for daring to dream at all, if they had seen the place where I started from. But if we stop dreaming and if we stop believing in ourselves, we are never going to create a world that is fair and just for everyone. If we are not willing to sacrifice, who will? How long can we wait? Please support my peace school project to educate and enable thousands of war affected Nepalese children to dream big and achieve their dreams.
To support their mission….
- make sure you post what you are grateful for between November 23rd and 25th - you can do it here on http://thankfulfor.com!
- visit Epic Change, leave a thank you note, and consider supporting this year’s changemakers.
- pass it on… :)
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