We shouldn’t wait 364 days each year to give thanks. Don’t you think Thanksgiving could be incorporated into our routine each day?

Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself every day:

1.When you wake up in the morning, do you say thanks for another day? Important to go from, “Oh, God, it’s morning,” to “Good, God, it’s morning.”

2.  Do you say thanks for the basic things? Not necessarily the things you want, but the things you need? Those are the very things we take for granted. Food in our bellies, a roof over our heads, brains that function, limbs that move?

3. Do you try to substitute positive thoughts for negative ones? Move from resentment to acceptance? Which means also—as hard as it is—saying prayers for those we resent? I know this sounds almost impossible, but it truly works.

4. Do you try to pass on a kindness each day? A sincere hello to the supermarket cashier? The traffic policeman? The person making your coffee?

5. Do you refrain from gossip? Do you zip the lip instead of criticize? Our sphere of influence is only the circumference of our arms. Everything outside of our personal space is not our business.

6. Do you avoid the PLOM’s (Poor Little Old Me)? Remember that self-pity is a parasite on our mind and heart. It drains us of our energy. There is always, always, always something we can do to improve our situation, even if only a wee bit.

7. Do you try a new behavior? Instead of manipulating to get something you want, can you try asking directly? Or doing something for the other person first? Remember, if you want generosity, let’s say, or courtesy, from someone else, you must be the first person to give it away.

8. Do you remind yourself that you don’t have to do everything perfectly? Actually, you don’t have to do anything perfectly. You just have to do things. Try to start doing something badly, just to get into the habit.

9. Do you give people the benefit of the doubt? I wrote about my mistake at not doing that here.

10. Do you go over your day right before you go to sleep and say thank you for all the small things that add up to the big things? The minor stuff is really the major stuff. It is all we have.

Let’s make each day a day to give thanks, a Thanksgiving Day.

Here is the answer to why turkeys are called turkeys. And here is from the Israel Christian Embassy in Jerusalem about how volunteer soldiers in the Israeli Army celebrate Thanksgiving.