It was 25 years ago this Thanksgiving that I participated in one of the most unique and memorable Thanksgiving Day feasts I’ve been able to recall in some time. I was working for a Top 40 radio station at the time in Pittsburgh. I had started with this station as a lowly intern, a college dropout, and when the internship ended I stayed on in various capabilities just because both they and I worked very well together. For many years I considered my time with B-94 my college education. I learned so much from this experience, and thanks to the relationships I formed there, when other Radio DJ’s went on to bigger and better things, I was often called upon to work with them.

We ran a promotion this particular year and asked people to write in and tell us what they were grateful for that particular Thanksgiving Day. A parent who’s brought them up, a teacher who has mentored them, an employer who’s provided insurance for a sick child, the letters came pouring in. As they did, the letters were read at various times of the day, and some were even able to read their own letter over the phone to be broadcast over the air.

The winner of this contest would win a fully catered Thanksgiving dinner, with all the fixings, on none other than the Mayflower. Now you may be wondering…Mayflower? Ah, you need to think a bit “outside the box” here. Like a “moving box”.

A school teacher actually won this contest and I can still remember the look on the families face when they saw none other than a Mayflower moving van pull up in front of their home. Inside the trailer was a fully waxed and polished hardwood floor, dinning room table with seating for 10, fine china, crystal glassware, silver to match, fall centerpiece with candles, and the wait staff who served this piping hot Thanksgiving feast inside the Mayflower?

Pilgrims.

The promotion got all kinds of television news coverage that year, and for many like me, it’s had a lasting memory decades later.

Many of us tend to only think about being thankful on days like today. It’s as if we can’t be too thankful, as if there’s not enough to go around. Well, there can never be enough thankfulness in this world. Starting today, and being thankful for what you have right now, will bring about even more people, places and things that you can be thankful for.

I got an e-mail yesterday from Rhonda Byrne, the creator of The Secret.

The greatest thief of human happiness and abundance is ungratefulness. Any lack in our lives – whether in money, health, or relationships – is simply the evidence of a lack of gratitude. If you focus on lack you are not being grateful, and that will bring more lack into your life. Yet the simple state of radiating gratitude summons everything to you.

Because I’ve focused on being grateful for each and every visitor to this Blog, what I thought would take 2 to 3 months for people to actually find and link to has taken less than 3 weeks. I’ve already had traffic that rivals some of the best days I’ve ever had in all the years over on the other blog format. Links pop up on the first instead of second or third page, and I’ve expanded my reach to actually help some of the people that have been laid off from Liberty Travel, and clients who were concerned about their sunk cruise booking with Cruise Value Centers. Not to mention that the Newsletter subscription has gone through the roof.

Take some time today to be thankful for what you have as you spend time with extended family. (Mine is flying in from Pittsburgh this morning, as they know a really good Travel Agent who got them a great deal!) Then see if you can extend that gratitude into this weekend. Before you know it, it’s going to be Monday and you’ve spent the entire 4 days being thankful and watch what happens.

It’s a great time to do it and you can start right now.

And thanks for being a part of this new blog. I’m honored and grateful for you taking the time to be here on this special day.

Now where’s that moving van? I’m hungry!

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Doug & Ronda Bauknight AKA: TravelPro Travel Agent / Networker Phone: 678.458.5812

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Tags: Gratitude, Mayflower, Thanksgiving

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Thanksgiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.