Is it time for a gratitude injection?

A couple of weeks ago I had a grade 10 CALM class use a gratitude practice as an ‘exit pass’ to leave the day’s lesson.

Most of the class gave their generic cheerful:

“I’m grateful for sleep”,

“I’m grateful for my cat”,

“I’m grateful for hot lunch”,

“I’m grateful for my family”.

The last person to leave the class was an exceptional young man who left me speechless with the following response:

“I’m grateful for amazing teachers… like you!”

I was so blown away by the direct compliment that it made me almost uncomfortable.

Teachers are generally content with intrinsic rewards:

watching students embrace new learning,

listening as students have a venue to finally share some exciting news,

seeing students grow into mature young citizens.

The explicit moments of gratitude, thank you, great job, good work, are basically unicorns.

We often hear about what we have not done enough of, or how it could be better and often on social media versus in-person.

People in so many fields complete thankless work around us each day.

Maybe it’s time we added a little intentionality to our own gratitude practice.

From Calvin our custodian who does a great job each day to our friendly postal lady who grabs the parcel even while dealing with a difficult customer on the phone.

You may not be present to see the result,

but I think you’d find that a well meant “Thank you”, is just the injection our society really needs right now.

• Now that’s a peak ethos!