25 Things To Be Thankful For On Thanksgiving

You are breathing right? (If you’re reading this, I surely do hope so). We need oxygen to survive. You can live without food for a while. You can live without water for a few days, but you cannot live without oxygen (at least not for more than a couple of minutes).

Can you imagine a world where nothing is beautiful? Ugly houses, ugly cars, ugly trees and flowers, and even ugly spouses. Luckily, our world is not like that, and for that we should be grateful.

It would be an interesting world if we could not move to say the least. Whether by train, cars, bikes, walking, or even wheelchair, the fact remains that you can move.

Strawberry Cheesecakes, Chocolate Fondue, Creamy Flans, whatever your sweet tooth delicacy, desserts are the colors to the taste pallet. To live without them is to live in a colorless world.

Most people don’t like war. Unfortunately, events happen that create wars. In these situations, our military protects our homelands and our interests. They lay down their lives for those who don’t even know them.

These brave men and women risk their lives daily to save the lives of others. How can we not be grateful for them?

It sucks when you get a speeding ticket. But law enforcers do more than just hand out tickets. They are responsible for maintaining order and apprehending malicious and evil people who would otherwise cause some serious harm.

You can live a while without food, but you can’t live for long without water.

There are so many benefits we receive from nature such as oxygen; trees for construction materials, paper, and furniture; and medicine. This is by no means exhaustive, but you can start to see that we indeed need to be grateful for the natural world.

You read that right. We need to be grateful for our mistakes for they serve a huge purpose in our development. Phyllis Theroux put it this way “Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom”.

Not only does laughter make people happy, it also makes them healthier. In fact, if you need convincing as to the value of laughter click on the image to check out 25 reasons to laugh.

Love can be a two edge sword. But to live without love, is really not living. It doesn’t have to be a romantic love. But that sacrificial devotion to someone else’s well being is something that we should all be grateful for.

Few people are more brutally honest about your faults than those who dislike you. True, they may twist their criticism to hurt you, but a wise person uses such criticism to check for blind spots in their character, consequently becoming stronger.

Some have and overabundance of it, others barely have enough to live (sadly, some even die without any). So if you have some of it, guess what, you have something to be grateful for.

The love of money may be the “root of all evil”, but money itself is not evil. In fact, money makes possible many things that are quite good, like feeding the hungry, paying off bills and buying nice things. So if you have money, be grateful. If you don’t; be grateful and you’ll see why on the next point.

For someone who is going through a rough financial time, this may not be an obvious reason to be thankful. But there are many things that human beings only learn in times of need. Strong bonds are forged between friends who step up to help you in this dire situation creating bonds that arguably would not have developed otherwise. Moreover, this time of need will develop you into a much stronger person in ways that people who lack need just can’t understand.

This world would be a dull place without music. Just think about all those showers without the harmonious rings of your vocal chords?

These can be teachers, pastors, coaches, or anyone who cares about you enough to not be afraid to tell you the truth no matter how much it hurts.

Yes dogs. Whether you own one or not, our civilization owes a huge debt to these amazing animals. Not only are they good for our immediate health, but arguably, our survival as a human race has been dependent on the domestication of dogs.

All physiques are different and we do a disservice to ourselves when we compare them. So what if so-and-so has big muscles and you don’t? Life is not about muscles or lack thereof. So be grateful for your physique and learn to love yourself so that in turn, you may love others.

It’s easy to complain about a boss or a work environment. But remember; there are some people who would love to have a job yet find themselves unable to enter the work force.

C.S. Lewis once said “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” It’s a sad and lonely life to live without friends.

Some could argue this point. However, there are many people who wish they had a family, yet find themselves lacking one. If you are one of the fortunate ones who can claim to have a family; rejoice and be grateful.

Some are fortunate to have some great parent, others are not so fortunate. Regardless of your fortune, the fact remains that you are alive. If it wasn’t for your parent’s involvement, you wouldn’t be.

This world is huge and it may even seem like you don’t matter. But the truth is, there is no one else like you and this world would not be the same without you in it. So be grateful for yourself. Look at the mirror and be thankful that you are who you are. As I once heard it said “If people knew who they truly were, they would not want to be anybody else”