An Unconventional Thank You

In the spirit of keeping things unconventional, it only seems right that my tribute to Thanksgiving post is going up ever so slightly (lol) after the holiday has ended. Sorry not sorry, your girl is BUSY.  Better late than never, right? … Yeah, let’s go with that.

Ever since I was just a baby bee, I remember Thanksgiving being my absolute favorite holiday, and to this day, that remains true. A day all about having gratitude for the royal flush of a life that the universe has dealt out for you… and also stuffing… like, SO much stuffing – Doesn’t sound like the worst way to spend a chilly Thursday in November, would you not agree? However, I realize that I was (am) lucky to have been raised in a loving, supportive family, and thus, always had much to be grateful for. While this year has left me feeling nothing shy of appreciative, (with a new college degree, new city, new job and beautiful apartment as just a mere scrape off the top of all of the good that I have endured) I am also very much aware of the fact that it’s easy to be grateful when things seem to be going your way, and the world is on your side.

Not that I was ever really unaware of how good of a life I have, but living in New York City has made me almost hyper-aware of it. It’s hard to think that your “bad day” is really all that bad when you get to wake up in a big, warm bed, take a shower, go to work, eat three meals a day, and see literal DOZENS of people around you begging for a few cents to get a mere cup of coffee…

Obviously I have days that are completely shitty, EVERYONE DOES, but I’m trying to limit the way I let those shitty days effect my life, because I know that at the end of the day, the worst thing that happened to me was probably better than the best thing that happened to many others around me.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the “value” of a thank you. Are some thank yous more valuable than others? Is there a scale for this? How should one judge it? Or is a thank you, just a thank you, no matter what? Does the value of a thank you lessen when you have so much to be thankful for? Can you over use thank you? The answer to these questions – I don’t know. All I know is that the other day, I gave a man a dollar on the subway, and the thank you I got from him was more sincere than any thank you I’ve heard, or rather felt, in a long ass time. It wasn’t even just the way he said it, because he did just simply say “thank you,” but the way he made eye contact with me, slightly nodded and closed his eye, I could FEEL his gratitude.

That’s another idea I’ve been thinking a lot about lately – gratitude. I told my mom that I was going to start challenge myself to actively be thankful for things that I typically wouldn’t go out of my way to be thankful for (like going to work, or missing the train, or getting caught in the rain, or making a hot meal for dinner), she told me “that is the art of practicing gratitude,” but I wonder if that's actually what it is, or if it’s just my way of growing up.

I’m learning a lot lately about the way my mind works – I might question too much, or think too deeply about certain things, and while some might see this as a flaw of mine, I’m going to thank myself for those things, because if I wasn’t so inquisitive, curious, and off the beaten path then what would I have to think about or dream about… or write about?

I’m going to extend my challenge to all of you, even if you just do it once this week, if you find yourself thinking “man, I wish that wouldn’t have happened,” change your frame of mind, even just for a second, and just say a little silent “thank you,” for whatever. Even if the only thing you have to be thankful for in that moment is that you have two functioning arms, two functioning legs, and a beating heart, just say thank you… because why the hell not?

Thank YOU.

XOXO,

Lexie
BB