‘Tis the season to have gratitude as the attitude, amirite? New Year’s is on the horizon, so it’s time to stock up the cheer.

Much noise is made here in America about the spirit of the holiday season. Once upon a time, the holidays here definitely started with Thanksgiving, but now the juggernaut of Halloween seems to start the ball rolling and Black Friday somehow spans the entire month of November.

Regardless, as you well know, we have a unique holiday here in America devoted to the giving of thanks. Which, of course, brings to mind the moment to meditate on the concept of gratitude!

Gratitude is a unique state of awareness to maintain. It’s not something you can force, but when you hold it in your awareness, it has a way of easing your path forward. Imagine a red carpet rolling out before you or Moses parting the Red Sea.

Paving the way with gratitude is like being Dorothy with the Yellow Brick Road stretching before you to the Emerald City of Oz.

Gratitude is like an insurance policy, too. It’s as if you’re making advance deposits in the universe’s favor bank, never knowing what sort of non-linear blessings will boomerang back to you.

If you have any doubts about it, ponder this for a moment. Have you ever known a truly ungrateful person? Someone who complains all the time, never says thank you, brandishes an entitled attitude, and thinks the world owes them a living?

First of all, folks like this are never any fun to be around. If you take a look at their life, you’ll notice that good luck usually avoids them. Somehow, the only luck that finds them seems to be bad.

So it only stands to reason that the inverse would be true. The energetics of the universe work both ways. We’ve all heard the sage advice to “create your own luck”, well, if there’s a secret sauce to doing just that, it starts with being grateful.

It’s not too hard of a habit to get into, albeit you may have to overcome some inertia. Even when things are going bonkers you can pause and take a deep breath and find some silver lining in the clouds to be thankful for.

The fine art of noticing that which you are thankful for is one thing, building the muscle of expressing gratitude is another. Giving good thanks like thanks-in-advance or appreciation-out-of-the-blue takes some practice, but the results are well worth it.

I could start a long list right now beginning with gratitude for the spirit of Gen Z and their willingness to play with language and give us terms like amirite, am I right?

And so forth and so on, into the holiday feasting and the great times spent with family and friends. Which I hope and trust you are having in abundance this holiday season!

May the forks be with you! Much love till next Monday, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine