Are these prompts truly generated by AI or are the powers that be throwing out these janky questions and then sitting back and laughing about how we struggle to answer them? I have some sporadic and disjointed thoughts on this prompt so bare with me.
I kind of miss the days when people did write letters and thank you cards. But those days are mostly over. Nowadays people send a text to say thanks, or perhaps post it on the recipient’s FB wall or send a dm. The last time I probably sent out thank you cards was after my wedding, twenty four years ago, which ended in divorce.
When I was in high school, my best friend came over to stay for the weekend and after she went home, she mailed a thank you card to my family. It was cute. Her mom did make her do it yes, but she filled the card up with her favourite moments from that weekend. I still have it in a photo album.
The most recent thank you card I received, was actually written out to my kids but it was from a former elementary school teacher that they’d had who was retiring. And even though they no longer went to that school, I bought flowers for her and had my daughter run them over to the school on her last day (we live right across the street). I was surprised a couple of days later when a thank you card showed up in our mailbox. People just don’t do that anymore.
Why are we making a point of expressing gratitude everyday now? I mean, I know WHY we do it. I do it as well but why were we not doing it in like the 1980’s? Or were we? Like what changed? I’m sort of fascinated by these trends that show themselves over time. I get why gyms popped up and people started making time in their day to workout, I think it was to make up for the fact that people in general weren’t plowing the ground by hand anymore or taking the washing down to the river with the wash board/scrub board thingy.
Machines eliminated the need for so much physical labour and people started getting lazy and out of shape. That’s why we need to “workout” nowadays.
But why did we start having to express gratitude? I do it too. I think it’s really amazing. Truly. But were people in say the 70’s and 80’s just living more graciously, naturally?
Are we now too overcome with consumerism? Nothing is ever enough? Is that it? I guess forty years ago you could really only purchase things from your local stores or do a catalogue type of order. Now we can order anything, anytime, from anywhere in the world and we’ve gone a bit mad with it. So we want more more more more. Which causes us to need to stop and actually make a point of saying wow, I have enough, I am enough and I am grateful. Maybe forty years ago we were happier with less?
When I first read Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty, that’s when I started actually taking a few minutes each day to think of what I was grateful for. I wanted everyone around me to read that book too. I was blown away by it. I told my mom that my dad should be expressing gratitude each day for what he had and not focusing so much on what he was lacking. Her response was “yes he says his prayers and what he’s thankful for”. Is that the same thing though? I guess it kind of can be.
I don’t see expressing gratitude as praying but to each their own.
bloom.planted.north 
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