MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

Thanksgiving is a special time of year. It is an opportunity to express in very tangible ways our appreciation and thankfulness for our many blessings. True, we shouldn't need a special day to say "thank you." We should visually and verbally express appreciation every day but Thanksgiving Dy is an opportunity to pause, reflect and demonstrate how thankful we are for sundry and special favors and opportunities. We seniors in particular have much to be thankful for if we are really honest with ourselves.

Saying thanks not only brightens someone else's world, it brightens yours. If you're feeling left out, unloved, unappreciated, forgotten, try reaching out to others. It may just be the medicine you need.

Over 20 years ago, I was walking through downtown Ogden, Utah, my hometown. Memories of my boyhood flooded back as I walked the familiar streets. Then I saw Ethyl Piper, and my mind flashed back to elementary school.

I was in the sixth grade at Lewis Elementary school, more interested in sports than schoolwork and I was not much interested in music class that Mrs. Piper taught. I'm afraid I was somewhat of a troublemaker in the class because I didn't like music and really had no interest. One day, Mrs. Piper stopped in the hallway after school and said, "Freddie, music is great fun. Why don't you come over to my house tonight after dinner and I'll show you." For the next several weeks, she tutored me by having me listen to great music and she got me to the point where I could almost carry a tune.. well, almost. Anyway, I learned to love music and at the callow age of 12, it seemed perfectly natural to me that a working wife and mother had nothing better to do after a hard day of teaching than to tutor me in music.

Then, that day, as I saw her, I realized what an uncommon sacrifice it had been. And, after all of those years, I told her so. "What you did was way beyond the call of duty", I said. "Thank you so much for enriching my life with the love of music." I was rewarded with a surprised smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She called me regularly after that day and we talked about music until she died at the age of 100.

Each human being is yearning for kind words of appreciation

In the novel,"I HEARD THE OWL CALL MY NAME", Margaret Cravens tells of a young minister, Mark Brian, who is sent by his bishop to a remote parish of Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia. The Indians, he is told, do not have a word in their vocabulary for "thank you." But, Brian soon finds that these people have exceptional generosity. Instead of "SAYING" thanks, it is their custom to return very favor with a favor of their own, and every kindness with an equal or superior kindness. The don't SAY thanks. They DO their thanks.

I wonder if we didn't have a word in our vocabulary for "thank you" would we do a better job of communicating our gratitude? Would we be more responsive, more sensitive, more caring?