A Grateful Heart

The last words singer Tony Bennett said before he passed were “Thank you.” How fitting for this music legend. It got me thinking about the power of gratitude. Studies abound to bolster this view. In a culture that can seem rife with rudeness, gratitude is a welcome countertrend. It seemed hyperbolic in the 2011 movie “I Don’t Know How She Does It” about working wife and mother Kate Reddy trying to juggle it all. Reddy made it a refrain. In fact, one of Reddy’s senior male coworkers noted how much she said “Thank you.”

Then, about eight years ago, I noticed people saying “I appreciate you” when parting ways on the phone or in person. I often saw the email sign-offs “in appreciation” or “gratefully.” It was catching. I started saying “I appreciate you being here” at work and in many everyday interactions, like checking out at the store, going to the bank, doing routine errands. It was uplifting all around.

At a gratitude journaling session around that time, the host was talking about a friend of hers going on a school field trip where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Kids got stuck in the mud, the animals got away. As the trip was winding down, the host relayed that her friend said, “We have so much to be grateful for.” I looked around the room at the dozen or so puzzled faces in the session. We were all trying to figure out what she meant. The host said the gratitude could have been for anything — just experiencing and getting through the wild and crazy day was enough.

During the pandemic, I heard appreciation — and said thank you — to a greater degree than ever. It seems to be sticking all around. Let’s hope so.

What are you thankful for today?