"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

-Meister Eckhart

In our day to day, it is sometimes a struggle to focus on our blessings and not get into a pity party around what we do not yet have or achieved. Regardless of our circumstances, there is much we have (tangible and intangible), so as we head into Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, here are a few ways to show your love and appreciation this week.

• Thanksgiving morning instead of sending generic thanksgiving greeting via text etc, share something specific that you are grateful for eg " I am thankful for your help with X this year", "I am thankful for your constant support" etc. 

• Be intentional about spending time with family. Put the phone down and listen to grandma talk about "the good old times".

• At thanksgiving dinner, take photos of your family especially those you don’t see often. Take group and individual photos with your phone or camera, then print several and send them to your older relatives. If you download the Shutterfly App, all prints from the app are free.

“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.”

-W. Clement Stone

• Consider purchasing a box of food to feed the less fortunate. Giant Supermarkets have these prepackaged boxes that can be purchased for $10 which are then picked up by Philabundance and given to families for the holidays. Ari saw them at the check out 2 weeks ago and of her own doing, used her pocket money she earned from helping me on shoots, to buy a box. Proud mama moment.

• When purchasing items on CyberMonday on Amazon, make sure you are using the Smile Amazon url to make purchases. In Smile, you can designate your charity of choice and 0.5% of price of qualifying products goes to that charity. You can use Smile Amazon all year round. If you are looking for charities to support, I am affiliated with 2 great Philadelphia youth organizations, Play On, Philly and beGirl World, both of which can be supported via Smile. Also don’t forget GivingTuesday.

• Invite someone who may be alone to join your family for thanksgiving. Many of us are lonely, especially the “strong” ones, so keep friends in mind who may be living away from family and can’t travel for the holiday. Invite them to dinner or bring them a plate after.

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

-John F. Kennedy

Have a wonderful and safe thanksgiving friends.