Let your appreciation show!

Thanksgiving for this year is done and we are on to the holiday season. This year did go by fast, didn't it? Well, I don't know about you, but I say this every year! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Its about a lot of "F"s....Family, Friends, Food, Fun and of course...Football! I'm thankful for a lot of things and people God has blessed me with. My family, my friends and people I work with help me everyday in so many different ways. And sometimes, in the hustle & bustle of our daily grind, I overlook to say "Thank You." And I believe its so important to appreciate people who have touched our life in any way.

Is saying a simple "Thank You" difficult? Why is it that so many times, we find it so. Over a lifetime, a lot of people will do us favors, both big and small. Favors come in different shapes and sizes. The most significant are those which come without fanfare or preceding drum rolls. Then it's up to the person receiving the favor to recognize and appreciate it. People will quietly help us out, and most of them don't expect anything in return. There is no such thing as "Gratitude unexpressed." If it is unexpressed, it is simple, old-fashioned ingratitude. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it!

So whenever we appreciate a gesture, there should be no hesitation in showing it. Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.

"Blessed are those who can give without remembering and receive without forgetting."

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Destiny...Luck....or just Hard work?

This past weekend I went to pick up some food from a nearby restaurant. As I was about to leave, the manager insisted that a waiter help me take the food out to my car. He gave the bags to a young man, about 20 years old, who accompanied me. It was a couple of minutes walk to my car.
"What's your name?" I asked him.
"Arthik, from Bangalore," he replied.
"How long have you been here?"
"About a year. I work here part-time to help with my tuition," he said. "I am doing my Masters."
"Masters?" I asked. "In what?"
"Computer sciences," he replied. By that time we had reached my car. "By the way sir, you have a very nice car," he continued, as he looked longingly at the vehicle.
I looked at him and smiled. "You'll have a better car than this in a few years, It's just a matter of time," I said.
"I will sir, if I'm lucky and if it's in my destiny," he replied.
"You keep on working hard, Arthik and you'll be amazed at how lucky you get," I said.

That conversation has lingered with me for the last few days. I hope this young, hard-working man achieves everything he dreams of. We all know the relationship between hard work and success. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. I haven't heard of anybody drowning in their own sweat. Hard work does spotlight character when it shows up in front of people-- some will turn up their sleeves, some will turn up their noses and some will not turn up at all.

Do you all believe in destiny? I do, but only to a certain extent. I think everything does happen for a reason. Sometimes we don't understand the reason, because only God is privy to the master plan. And what about being lucky? As Thomas Jefferson once said, "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it!" Luck has a very strange habit of favoring those who don't depend on it.

"God gave us two ends-- one to sit on and one to think with. Success depends on which one you use. Heads you win, tails you lose!"


P.S.- Here's wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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