Practicing gratitude in the weeks before Thanksgiving

Every year I mean to arrive at Thanksgiving already full of gratitude, and every year the week before is a blur of grocery lists and table settings. So a few years ago I started giving the whole month to it instead of a single day. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26 this year, which leaves plenty of time to begin.

A notebook just for this

Any small notebook will do. I keep mine by the coffee maker so I see it first thing. Each day I write down three things I’m thankful for, numbered, with the date at the top.

Be specific

“My family” is true, but it is easy to write without feeling anything. “The way my neighbor waved from her porch this morning” or “the first cool night with the windows open” makes me stop and actually remember. The smaller and more particular, the better.

Write on the hard days, too

Some days the list is short and plain: a hot shower, a phone call that went better than I feared, the fact that the day is over. Those pages end up meaning the most when I read them later.

Turn one into a note

Once a week, I pick one line that involves another person and write that person a short card. It takes five minutes, costs a stamp, and almost always comes back to me in some way I didn’t expect.

Read it on Thanksgiving morning

Before the oven goes on and the house fills up, I sit down with a cup of coffee and read the whole month from the beginning. It is my favorite fifteen minutes of the holiday.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 107:1 (KJV)