Six years ago, I had the opportunity of visiting my sister in Livingston, Montana.
I stayed for almost a month and when it was time to return back to the Philippines, she had to drive me for more than an hour to bring me to the airport in Bozeman.
After checking in, we had a sumptuous lunch together. We talked for a few minutes before she bade goodbye.
I was alone at the airport. Now, I was ready to enter the departure area but before that, I had to undergo the routine check-up.
I was busy trying to find my papers when I noticed that the person before me was Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid (yes, the ex-husband of Meg Ryan). Next to him was an old lady carrying some heavy bags. “Can I carry some of them?” Dennis inquired.
The lady looked at him for a few minutes. “Sure,” she replied, and gave him her other bag. When we were inside the waiting area, the lady came to Dennis and said, “Thank you very much for helping me.”
Since it was still an hour before our flight schedule, I tried to talk with the actor. “It was heavy,” he told me of the bag that was handed to her by the old lady. We talked, we exchanged notes, and before we knew it, it was time to go. We were both heading for Minneapolis.
That event came to mind when I heard the eulogy of President Benigno Aquino III to the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse M. Robredo.
“Jesse is already in the ranks of heroes watching over us from heaven, and he is giving us the strength to continue with their good deeds. So let us stop weeping; instead, let us give thanks.”
“Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality,” said Alfred Painter. William Shakespeare, the touted Father of English literature, reminded, “I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.”
“Thank you” may be simply said but to a person receiving the complementary, it means a lot.
“Every morning of the world I give thanks for all the wonderful things in my life,” a young man declared enthusiastically. “And do you know something? It’s strange indeed, but the more I give thanks, the more I have reason to be thankful.
For, you see, blessings just pile up on me one after another like nobody’s business.”
“None of us ever too busy to pay his way,” said David Dunn. “It takes only a few seconds to say a heart-warming ‘Thank you.’”
Look at former American President Theodore Roosevelt, who lived a more hurried and hectic life.
Even on political campaign trips, when he was so busy and could hardly take a deep breath, he would excused him to go to small people and talked with them for few seconds.
It was his custom before leaving his private train to thank the engineer and fireman for a safe and comfortable trip. “It took but a fraction of a minute of his time, but h e had two more friends for the rest of his life,” Dunn said.
“Good politics,” most people say. “But good living too,” added Dunn. “For, after all, isn’t having friends the basis of happy living, as well as of successful politics?”
Dunn continued, “Nor I have found any situation in which thanks cannot be given.
You can thank even total strangers with a nod of the head, a gesture of the hand, a grateful glance – in jostling street crowds, in swaying subway trains, at the theatre, in the quiet of a church service, anywhere at all, if you heart is saying, ‘Thank you.’”
Yes, we seldom pause to give thanks for the simple blessings of life. “One reason is that we are used to having so much,” Richard B. Douglas contends. “We simply assure that we will have all the good things of life.
“Another reason is that it hurts our pride to be grateful,” Douglas continues. “We do not want to admit that God is the Provider of all good things. We are simply His stewards. Being thankful requires humility and faith in God.
When we have these, we can be grateful.”
If you have to thank someone, do it now – before it’s too late. Do not wait for tomorrow for that day may not come anymore. A widow, who had spent long days and hours in the factory and at home raising her four children, lay exhausted and emaciated on her deathbed.
Around her stood the four of them, now grown-up men and women. The eldest son, in tears, said to her, “Mother, you have always been so good and kind to us.
We want to thank you. We’re so proud of you.”
The mother opened her eyes and asked, “Why have you waited so long to tell me that? You never ever said so before.”
She turned her head away and died.
An anonymous author penned this masterpiece: “For health and children, home and friends; for comfort in the time of need, for every kindly word and deed, for happy thoughts and holy talk, for guidance in our daily walk – for everything give thanks!
“For beauty in this world of ours, for verdant grass and lovely flowers, for song of birds, for hum of bees; for the refreshing summer breeze, for hill and plain, for stream and wood, for the great ocean’s mighty flood – for everything give thanks!
“For the sweet sleep which comes with night, for the returning morning’s light, for the bright sun that shines on high, for the stars glittering in the sky, for these, and everything we see, O Lord! our hearts we lift to Thee.
For everything give thanks!”
For comments, write me at henrytacio@gmail.com
