Recently, I asked various people I know the following question:
What were you thankful for when you were five years old?
Here are a few of the responses I got.
- “That my mom would read to me every night and comfort me when other kids were mean.”
- “I was thankful for my Nintendo and my older brother.”
- “I was thankful for summertime freedom and friends to spend it with.”
- “Legos, sledding, hot chocolate, riding bikes, trick or treating…”
- “My Alf sleeping bag. It was a Christmas gift that comforted me while my Dad was away at war.”
Close your eyes and take a second to think. What were you thankful for when you were five?
I also asked:
What about when you were a teenager?
The responses started getting a little longer, a little deeper. For example:
- “I was thankful for being able to make my own decisions and feeling like the whole world was awaiting my arrival.”
- “Getting more freedom, being acknowledged for my gifts and talents, making more friends.”
- “Art. Music helped me realize my experiences weren’t abnormal and I wasn’t alone. Books were a way for me to get a break from life, learn more about different types of people in the world, and the kind of person I wanted to be.”
- “I was thankful for the people who helped me deal with abusive and neglectful parents.”
- “Friends that I felt understood me.”
- “Having parents that still enabled me to pursue my passions even when they had financial setbacks.”
- “My car. Freedom!”
What about you? Do any of these sound familiar to your own experience – or were you thankful for profoundly different things?
What were you thankful for as a young adult?
- “This is when I became truly grateful for my family. Parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, siblings. Because this is when I realized I wouldn’t have them forever.”
- “I was grateful for having a steady job and decent income.”
- “I was grateful for the chance to live by myself in my own apartment. It helped me figure out who I was.”
- “My friends. They helped me learn how to be an adult.”
- “Independence. By then I had moved out on my own and was learning how to take care of myself.”
- “Being able to do what I wanted, when I wanted.”
- “My new babies. The love I had no idea existed.”
Do you notice a pattern yet?
What were you thankful for in your thirties, forties, and fifties?
- “My mother. The older I get, the more I understand what my mother gave me. She was a role model of work ethic, kindness, and humor. Traits that have more value than any amount of money.”
- “For the first time, I started realizing I should be grateful for my body. My health and physical abilities. Nutritious food, being able to go outdoors, being able to learn new things – I became grateful for the things that make life the fulfilling adventure it is!”
- “I was thankful for the skills I had learned up to that point that made me unique. Thankful that my parents lived long enough to become grandparents. Thankful that my daughter got to have similar experiences to me – and all new experiences I never dreamed of.”
- “I am thankful for my brother, who reached out to me to build the relationship we both wish we had when we were younger.”
- “The basics are more important to me than ever. Shelter, security, food, health, companionship. I can live without a lot of things. Not those.”
- “I was thankful for each and every experience I had growing up, both the bad and the good. It all made me who I am – and I like who I am.”
And finally…
What were you thankful for after retirement?
- “I’m thankful I got to live this long!”
- “I’m thankful I’m now a 22-year breast cancer survivor.”
- “I’m thankful to have lost 50 pounds and kept it off!”
- “I’m thankful my children are better people than I am – and that their children will probably be even better still.”
- “I’m thankful for the time I now have to hone my skills in a way I never did before.”
- “I’m thankful that for the first time in a long time, I can focus on me.”
I think it’s fascinating, how the things we’re most thankful for change over time. We start out most thankful for objects and activities, for the things that comfort us. We move on to being grateful for our friends and independence. For our own identities and the things that make us unique. And as we mature, our gratitude becomes both simpler and deeper. We’re thankful for things we once took for granted. We’re thankful for the relationships we’ve come to count on for support. We’re thankful for what is both fleeting and eternal.
This is why Thanksgiving is such a special time of year to me. It gives us a chance not only to reflect on what we’re thankful for now, but what we’re thankful for always. It’s an opportunity to look back and see how far we’ve come. To learn why we are the way we are. To understand what truly matters in this life.
Because when you think about it, the things we were thankful for as children, as teenagers, as young adults – they don’t fade away. They stay with us forever. They continue to shape us today. So, when we sit around the dinner table and chat about what we’re thankful for this year, we realize that our list doesn’t just change. It deepens. It grows.
Just like we do.
I hope you have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving spent with people you love. I hope you know how thankful I am for our relationship, and that you’ve benefited from it as much as I have.
There’s a lot to be grateful for in this world. Big things and small things. Simple and complex. Serious and silly. People, places, possessions, and more.
May we use this holiday to give thanks for it all.
The office will close early on Wednesday and be closed Thursday and Friday.
To Your Best 2nd Half,
