A Wave of Positivity: A Thanksgiving message from a Blogger on the Huffington Post

A Wave of Positivity: A Thanksgiving message from a Blogger on the Huffington Post
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Wave of Positivity This is a great caption, and idea with credit to the great folks at NoNeg101.

Wave of Positivity This is a great caption, and idea with credit to the great folks at NoNeg101.

Jonathan Doll, Archives

First Thanksgiving Message (below) | Second Thanksgiving Message (link)

Imagine a wave of positivity rolling across our land. It causes people to stop focusing only on problems and negativity, but to seek hope.

Positivity does many things for a populace. It:

  • It builds bridges of relationship where there were none.
  • If forgives hardships, errors, mistakes, and grievances.
  • It lets go of bitterness and wrath.
  • It invites hope for the future and nurtures healing.

Let’s envision a country where all of our people, and emigres to this great land, stop being negative and instead choose to be positive. It's a land where we look for a positive, hopeful future with others that we relate with. It's a place where we trust that good things can come from negative circumstances.

A positive country is also a place where we truly are a resilient and thankful nation. We also expect positives and resilience to occur rather than going around looking for brokenness and no offer of help.

When is the last time you:

  • Were thankful for our national road systems which, though they can be improved, are all paved.
  • Were thankful for those around you, even if you didn't often share that thought out loud.
  • Were thankful for being alive.
  • Were thankful for opportunities you have to make good on promises you've made.
  • Were thankful for the promises you haven’t made (or haven’t yet kept), but were thinking about.
  • We're thankful for ANY CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE(S) because these serve as a vehicle to train you to be a better person.

Or the last time you:

  • Were thankful for your neighbor or neighbors.
  • Were thankful for people whom you do not easily get along with.
  • Were thankful for your communities police and firefighters: they take care of your community.
  • Were thankful for your community’s schools, in which you can help out in some way.
  • Were thankful for your community, region, or state activists, and those who work in advocacy, because they point out and address profound needs.

***

It is true that some experiences – mainly hardships and losses – are difficult to be thankful for. In fact, there might not really seem like a door of gratitude is contained anywhere within these experiences. But I would offer to you that the door of gratitude opens to a better response, better sense of hope, and better appreciation of the present and the past. It always does. Even if loss is all around, we can be thankful that we will endure, will grow, and will become better people. We will be better able to serve others in the future even while a single experience or a series of them might still currently weigh us down.

Think of it this way. There are multiple people going through the same challenges that you might be facing. If you do not become thankful, who will help others going through the same problems? You alone have the heart, the ability to cheer, and the knack for creating opportunities out of outright painful experiences. You have done it before and you can do it again.

***

I wonder about the limits of thankfulness. What if I am thankful for needs, for hope's, and for a future not yet seen? It's no surprise that having a thankful heart opens the door toward being a more grateful and content person.

Also, what if I am thankful for grievances – not bitter – and then I look for ways to help others?

It's too easy to shake our head and complain about something. But to be thankful and then work in a way that promotes positive change is a worthy task that might even be difficult at times. But it always pays off in the end.

This Thanksgiving, I hope that you and those you care about spend time thinking about this hard work of gratitude. It's a worthy endeavor, no doubt.

Just a bit of Positivity from Deborah Ann’s Poetry pages.

Just a bit of Positivity from Deborah Ann’s Poetry pages.

https://poetrybyDeborahAnn.wordpress.com

Let's remember what John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, said to us. It's really two messages in one, today:

"No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." (- JFK, From the new oval office rug at the White House)
"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us take time to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” (- JFK, from a 1958 Speech)

And as we each go far from here, let's remember lastly that the thankfulness inside each of us (that we alone choose to have) is what makes us a thankful nation as a whole. And that is the place where we can each call home – somewhere and something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving from a blogger on the Huffington Post.

_______________________________________________

** For further reading, consider 73 thoughts on Gratitude from amazing people in our world.

** Thoughts on giving praise.

>> JFK Quote on the Oval Office Rug, recently replaced by President Barack Obama.

>> JFK Quote on Responsibility for the Future, a 1958 Speech at Loyola College to Alumni.

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Dr. Jonathan Doll normally writes on the Huffington Post blog covering topics of school engagement and wellness. He is the author of the 2015 book, Ending School Shootings: School and District Tools for Prevention and Action. http://www.endingschoolshootings.org/

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