This Thursday, people around America will celebrate a holiday, doing so with food, football games and a day off work. Families will gather, turkeys will be stuffed, and plates will be filled. The next day, gazillions will go shopping.  I wonder if people will spend much time doing the serious, contemplative work of the holiday. Maybe they would if we inverted the words of the holiday name, from Thanksgiving to GivingThanks.

There will likely be some messages of thanks during the course of the big day, perhaps a prayer before mealtime or an exuberant expression of gratitude at a completed touchdown pass. How about some quiet time, other than the alcohol- or tryptophan-induced nap, to be used to give thanks for the many things, people and conditions of our lives? No counter statements or conditions allowed like, “I am thankful for xxx, but I wish it was as nice as the Jones’” or “I am thankful for my job, but I wish I made more money,” and similar other statements.  Give thanks. Period. Full stop.

Much is said and marketed around the “attitude of gratitude.” While I agree with the importance of that, I also flinch at those who flaunt it as a personal brand or marketing strategy, of sorts. How about just being thankful? In the spirit of word reversal, how about being full of thanks? We can be full of thanks daily, hourly, and moment-by-moment. We can be thankful and express it to our spouse for doing something thoughtful, to the stranger who held the door open for you at the store, to God for giving you breath.

Giving thanks is an act of expression, whether quietly in a prayer or vocally to a person.

Upon more reflection, I guess we shouldn’t change the holiday name to GivingThanks because in a few years the marketing folks would turn it into another sales event and the holiday activities would remain the same. Let’s make it personal. Let’s own it individually to give thanks for the dozens, scores, hundreds of reasons for which we can, and should be thankful, thus, full of thanks.

Among the things for which I give thanks is you.

I hope that you and yours have a wonderful GivingThanks day. May your turkey be tasty and your team win the big game, and may you be full of thanks for all that life is.