Greetings All –

I’m visiting my family for Thanksgiving this week.  As I am already feeling grateful for being able to travel this Thanksgiving to visit with my family, the holiday is providing another opportunity to reflect on thankfulness in general.

There comes a time in life, if we are lucky, through personal experience, growth, and wisdom we come to realize we are responsible for every element of our lives.  As such, blame is no longer a welcome companion.  We do not blame others for the state of our lives, and interesting enough, we do not blame ourselves — we simply take responsibility for our lives and are thankful.   It doesn’t matter if we prescribe to a religious philosophy or not, the simple act of accepting responsibility and being grateful adds such substantial depth to life that it can be described as being almost magically transformative.  The freedom and joy that can be experienced from this act is tantamount to love — love of self and others.

Accepting responsibility also means giving credit to those who have shaped us into the person we are today … regardless of how the actions of others may have shaped us or propagated our personal growth.

So how does this work?  Responsibility give us freedom. When we accept responsibility, we suddenly have the power to change our lives.  We no longer need permission or approval from anyone to direct our lives into the direction that best serves us.  It doe not matter what anyone else believes what it is to be a father, mother, brother, sister, man, woman, business person, lover, success, failure, good, bad or any other preconceived notion. We are good enough the way we are and moving forward to the person we are to become…whatever that may be.

Our thoughts and actions start to align and our thinking starts to see possibilities rather than limitations.  When responsibility is combined with gratefulness — peace, love and joy enter into our lives and we are no longer prisoners of the blame game or our a painful past.  We can forgive and move forward.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I am grateful to you all!

Here’s to taking action and being grateful each and everyday.

With Love and Respect,

Gary

P.S.

I’ve discovered this little app that I think is wonderful; it helps keep me on track for several small personal daily goals; one of which is to be thankful.  http://balancedapp.com/  FYI:  I do not have a relationship with this company nor receive any sort of compensation from them. I simply like the app.