First Gratitude, Then Joy

Dear Reader:

I fervently hope everyone is thinking about all the things and especially people who we are thankful and grateful for today!

I showed you yesterday a grandchild ( Eva Cate) turkey she made for me to bring to Highlands-I love it! I also love the simple idea of making a centerpiece turkey out of pine cones and add construction paper feathers on it-everyone takes a ” feather ” and writes down something they are thankful for and then shares it with the table.

Brene Brown discovered an “Aha” moment in researching the relationship between joy and gratitude. She went into the research thinking that the relationship between joy and gratitude was: if you are joyful, you should be grateful. She discovered she was wrong-it wasn’t that way at all.

In twelve years of research on 11,000 pieces of data, she didn’t interview one person who described themselves as joyful, who did not actively practice gratitude.

Actively expressing gratitude should be a daily ritual. Every day, not just Thanksgiving, we should let others know how much joy ( by just their presence) they bring us and actively share with others to list what things happened in each day that brought a sense of gratitude to it.

So until tomorrow… there is a great quote from a Jesuit priest that says: ” It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful!”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

Let your light be bright today!

Please keep Joan and WT Turner, John’s parents in your thoughts-they lost Mickey-the last in Lucy’s litter still living… Same time as last year when John and Mandy lost Tigger! But little Winnie is flying with the family this year to Joan and WT’s in Huntsville for Thanksgiving-hopefully she and the children can help fill up the vacuum temporarily. Happy Thanksgiving!

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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