What do you have to be thankful for? Take this week to reflect on just how fortunate you are.  Whether you are experiencing the delight of prosperity and abundance, or the growth opportunity that accompanies challenge, gratitude is always in fashion. Regardless of your current situation, notice that you are alive, and that you can direct your energy, time and attention toward any of the myriad options that surround you.

This gift of free will is enough to be eternally grateful, but it doesn't stop there. We can create relationships with others, and exchange love and support. We can have fun, by our own definition. And, we can make a difference in the lives of those we touch. However you fill in the blanks in this equation, there is much to be thankful for, indeed.

What would happen if you were to choose to consistently demonstrate and celebrate your thankfulness in tangible, obvious ways?  You may decide to make a regular donation to a worthy cause - or, if you tend to prefer less drama, maybe you'll offer a kind word to a stranger, or to someone who could use the encouragement - your intent and willingness to share of yourself will come back to you multifold, if only you can realize that giving and receiving are part of the same cycle, and that the fuel that powers that cycle is gratitude.

In looking back over the past year, I am blessed with a loving wife and family, great health, work I truly enjoy, a practice that is thriving and making a real difference in people's lives, terrific friends, leisure activities that entertain and stimulate me, and of course, you, my cherished readers of this humble column.

You never know how your small kindness will make a difference in someone's life. Give of yourself, and be sure to let yourself receive, too - because you are special, all of you in your own unique way. God bless.

Here are some great thoughts from great thinkers, for your reading pleasure:

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.

E.P. Powell

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.

Theodore Roosevelt

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Thornton Wilder

We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

Author unknown

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

Johannes A. Gaertner

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.

Cicero

Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet.  Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.

Phillips Brooks

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.

Seneca

O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.

William Shakespeare

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

Aesop

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

William Arthur Ward

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.

W.J. Cameron

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. I can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattle

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

W.T. Purkiser