thanksgiving and gratitude

Just in case you're an extemporaneous speaker and hadn't thought about your Thanksgiving toast..

... or for those of you paralyzed by the thought of going around the table and saying what you're thankful for because although you're thankful for everything, you have 22 family members and by the time they get to you, it's hard to have an 'original thought'...

.... here are a few quotes about Thanksgiving and gratitude. Some are funny. Some more serious. All are true.

Happy Thanksgiving! And, in the spirit of John Hughes, may all of us spend some time at the kids' table today. No matter what our age. Cheers.

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.  ~William Faulkner

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

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving? ~ Erma Bombeck

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

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.  ~ Chinese Proverb

There is no sincerer love than the love of food. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~ Melody Beattie

It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving - you can put your elbows on it, you don't have to talk politics... no matter how old I get, there's always a part of me that's sitting there. ~ John Hughes