Gratitude and Thank You

I heard something great the other day on the radio on how to teach your children gratitude.  A good way to start is by teaching them to say "thank you."  Well, we are working on this in our house, but it sounds more like "tanku" and happens with lots of actions, whether she is thankful or not!  But it does tickle me when I pick her up from daycare and they tell me she has been "thanking" everyone all day. 

I am grateful and thankful for so many things in my life.  I noticed the other day that someone removed my gratitude list from my desk.  (Dave?  Isla?  Caya?)  I need to write out another one, and it is probably a good exercise to write it down again on paper.  I want it posted so that if I were ever to pass away suddenly, my family would see that I KNOW I have a good life.  

I have also been thinking about the people that I have thanked lately.  Sometimes they help me in small ways.  Sometimes they don't really seem to be helping me at all, but I am thankful because I know I am learning a lesson or gaining something valuable from my interaction with them.  You can really find gratitude in almost anything, even when it doesn't feel good initially.  And I never know if people appreciate or even read/receive my thank-yous, but at least it is out there in the universe.   

So, we are going to keep saying "thank you" A LOT around this house.  And I am going to really try to let gratitude live in my day to day actions. 

How about showing some gratitude to super dad for taking everyone on a walk so mom could eat dinner?