It’s November, the month of my very favorite day of the year – Thanksgiving. Admittedly, not every country in the world has a Thanksgiving Day, and those that do may not be in November. Nevertheless, it’s a day I value and appreciate and am grateful for, whether it’s spent with family or friends or by myself.

Which makes me think about those two things, gratitude and appreciation. What is the difference between them? Is there any difference? After considering it for a bit, I realized that for me appreciation is something to express out loud, to someone, for someone or something, it’s an external expression of an internal feeling.

Gratitude is the internal version of appreciation, a state of being to live within, a way to see the world.

When I looked up the definitions in the Macmillan dictionary on my desk, I felt vindicated:

          Appreciation: n.act of recognizing the worth or quality of (and there are 3 more definitions, including “gratitude”)

          Gratitude: n.quality or condition of being grateful, as for a kindness or favor.

How often do we express our appreciation or gratitude out loud when it’s not Thanksgiving, when we take the time to go around the table before dinner mentioning at least one thing we’re grateful for? What stops us from telling someone we appreciate –

- how hard they work?

- the way they listen and respond to our questions and/or requests?

- their patience with young children, pets, wretched traffic?

- their generosity of spirit, of time, of money, of resources besides money?

- anything at all!?

What are we afraid will happen if we tell people out loud that we appreciate them or some of their actions?

Are you willing to experiment and find out? That’s the challenge for this month – express your gratitude out loud as appreciation for and to someone, often enough that it’s meaningful, but not so often that it loses its power or value.

Photo by: Raj Vaishnaw / Pexels