I am the mom of a teenager, and most days I can hardly believe it. The journey my daughter and I have been on has been an adventure from the beginning. Full of twists and turns, and joys and sorrows; the kind of thing that these stories are often filled with. Through it all, we have experienced so many emotions - delight, sadness, strength, frustration, perseverance, and resilience. My little family is filled with so much love and it has been through hard work, commitment, and the love and support of those around us, that have allowed me to build the beautiful life that we have been gifted. I am so thankful for all that has brought us to where we are, and that’s made me think more about what it means to be thankful and how that leads to gratitude.

Thankfulness is an emotion and a really important one at that, but I wanted to better understand the action of being thankful - what we know as gratitude. Showing an appreciation for kindness isn’t something that I have always been great at, in fact I simply lacked the capacity to do one more thing - the most important thing. As most parents will tell you, there is so much to learn from our children.

My daughter has taught me that being thankful simply isn’t enough, it is gratitude that really makes a difference - not only to those whom we show an appreciation of their kindness. Gratitude fills us with positive emotions and works magic in our brains to make us happier. My daughter recently earned an opportunity that has opened so many doors for her, and the way she expressed her gratitude to those with whom she spent her time with, was to write them all thank you cards with the cutest personal messages. When she handed her cards to the recipients, their reactions where so heartfelt. There were giggles, hugs, and so much joy in the air. See, the thing about gratitude is that you never know the impact it has in others until it sneaks up on you in the most beautiful of ways.