ThanksGiving

When I first came to Los Angeles, trying to find a career, a spiritually minded actor befriended Sandi and me. Sandi happened to be dancing in a stage production he was also in. Stage performers seem to bond quicker than most any other type of show biz. This actor was at the time staring in a second television show after wining several Emmy's for his first. To this day his name would be known, but that is insignificant to the story and would just get in the way.

I was a little down at the time, wondering how to summit this city and this business. He took me under his wing, not to open doors to agencies, but help me get my attitude ready. He encouraged me to make a list of everything I was grateful for, no matter how insignificant. He said if I couldn't come up with 50 things on the grateful list I wasn't trying. At the end of that list I was to write down five things that I would like to have happen in my life. No one but me would ever see the list... it was secret and personal.

The grateful list was completed and I wrote down ten things I wanted. These were things that were at the time were seemingly impossible to achieve, like starring in a network television series, to name only one. The idea was to read the entire list of things I was grateful for and things I wanted to happen every day.

I did that for weeks. Every day I read the "grateful list" and then the "wish list". I'm not sure when I stopped or why. Recently I found that list in a stack of forgotten papers in the chest beside my bed. I was amazed to find that those things that I was grateful for 34 years ago would still mostly apply today. What was even more surprising was the "wish list". All ten things had come to pass, decades ago. I wondered why I stopped and why I didn't keep adding to the wish list as those things moved to the grateful side. Although things have happened recently that I would not have even dreamed to wish for.

All this to say... gratitude comes first. Once you can feel the gratitude for what you have, you open yourself up for new things to come into your life. Then those things become a new object of gratitude. It is great to have a day called Thanksgiving. A day for giving Thanks. A day of gratitude.

So look around and be thankful for everything you see today. Nothing is too insignificant, nothing is too trivial to be grateful for. Gratitude is in some ways remembering a wish that has come true.

Happy Thanksgiving....