Getting Better All the Time—Thanksgiving/Holiday Season Extra

Take Time, Count Your Blessings, Be Ever Thankful, and You Will Be Even More Grateful

By James F. Gesualdi

Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.
—Charles E. Jefferson

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
—Willie Nelson

Gratitude from a Caring and Loving Heart Is Transformative

Giving of oneself, one's presence, and one's time is invaluable—and that is truest when doing so involves giving thanks. It may be a single expression of thankfulness or a more grandiose exercise. It is a humble and joyous acknowledgment that a fellow soul on this journey with us cared and gave of themselves to ease or lift our way. We then further elevate our brothers and sisters by thanking them for their goodness on our behalf, or on behalf of animals. Doing so also raises us up higher still because of this mindful appreciation. Love may be the strongest force for good in the world, and gratitude is a tangible form of love in action, in response to an act of loving kindness.

An Earnest Reflection on the Truly Good Practice of Thanksgiving (listen here)

Let us be ever thankful
for this very moment and each one in which we live.
May boundless gratitude always fill our hearts—
especially at those times we strain to see the good.
The good that is all around us, within us, and sustains us.
Our practice of thanksgiving is only ever now and more than a day.
From this lofty consciousness, we can seize the opportunities to bring greater good and more light to our journey, together with the animals and each other.
As we move forward, let us seek to more fully understand the animals, people, and world outside of ourselves, although connected to the essence of our being.
It is through such awareness and appreciation of our differences that we see anew the oneness of all life.
This knowledge strengthens our resolve to gratefully serve animals and others. And that is our reason for being here, and it is good.
© 2021–2023 James F. Gesualdi, P.C.

The Complete Listing of Getting Better All the Time Thanksgiving Columns—View in the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Academy Newsletter Archives

Writing this column over the last eight-and-a-half years has required an enormous investment of creative energy, love, and time. Gratitude fills this heart for the opportunity and staying power to have worked through the columns. A look back furnishes additional reminders to help fully appreciate the gift of gratitude of this column—including gratitude for your reading it, as well as for all the giving of yourself on behalf of animals and others. Thanks—and thanks again.

Turning Challenges into Opportunities: The Principles of Constructive Engagement, November 2015. (Leveraging gratitude for the opportunity and ability to help animals to carry us through difficult challenges. For an updated streamlined version of The Principles of Constructive Engagement, see the January 2023 column, Learning From Life Itself Helps Us Positively Impact Animals' Lives.)
Giving of Ourselves, Planning Thoughtfully, and Thanksgiving for Caregiving, November 2016.
Improving Animals' Lives Every Day, November 2017.
Serving Gratefully Is the Highest Form of Giving Thanks, November 2018.
Supporting the Cause of Animal Protection: Words from the Heart, November 2019.
The Practice of Giving Thanks and How Mentoring Helps Us Help Animals, November 2020.
Giving Thanks for Doing Work that Makes Our Lives 'Good for Something,' November 2021.
Thinking About Thanksgiving in a Heartfelt New Way, November 2022.

Take Time, Count Your Blessings, Be Ever Thankful, and You Will Be Even More Grateful

Experience has taught that this is true, no matter the underlying circumstances. So put gratitude to use for good wherever you can, and when you and others need it most. No thanks necessary, though always appreciated.

To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.
—Albert Schweitzer

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
—Marcus Aurelius

If you have lived, take thankfully the past.
—John Dryden