Gracefulness and Gratefulness: A Thanksgiving Reflection
As we gather around the table this Thanksgiving, it’s a natural moment to reflect on the gifts in our lives—family, friends, health, and the opportunities we’ve been given. But there’s another layer worth considering: how we show up in the world and bring grace to our relationships, our work, and our communities.
Seth Godin’s reflections on gracefulness resonate deeply with me, especially during this season of gratitude. Gracefulness is about more than how we carry ourselves; it’s about lifting others, inspiring them, and creating a ripple effect of positivity and connection. It’s a choice we make, day in and day out, even when life pulls us in a hundred directions.
This Thanksgiving, I encourage us all to embrace gracefulness as an extension of gratefulness. Being grateful is about recognizing the good in our lives; being graceful is about sharing that good with others in an intentional and uplifting way. It’s about showing patience when it’s hard, offering trust when it’s needed, and raising the game for those around us.
As you spend time with loved ones this week, I hope you’ll find moments to reflect on both—what you’re grateful for and how you can share grace with others.
Seth Godin beautifully captures the essence of gracefulness in his own words, which I’ve included below for you to reflect on. His perspective is a wonderful reminder of how we can approach life, relationships, and work in a meaningful way.
Wishing you and your family a Thanksgiving filled with gratitude and grace. I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve you and be part of your journey.
Graceful?
Here’s a never-ending worldwide shortage.
Graceful is artistic, elegant, subtle and effective. Graceful makes things happen and brings light but not heat.
Graceful doesn’t mean invisible, hiding, fearful or by the book. And graceful certainly doesn’t include hectoring, lecturing or bullying.
Audrey Hepburn was graceful. Wayne Gretzky too.
A graceful person gets things done, but does it in a way you’d be happy to have repeated.
A graceful person raises the game of everyone nearby, causing a race to the top, not the bottom.
Graceful is the person we can’t live without, the one who makes a difference. The linchpin. Everywhere I turn, I see people bringing grace to their families, their communities and their work.
The thing is, no one is born graceful. It’s not a gift, it’s a choice.
Every day, we get a chance to give others the benefit of the doubt. Every day, we get the opportunity to give others our support, our confidence and our trust. And yet most days, we hesitate.
There are so many things on our agenda, so many people who want a piece of us, so many things to do, so many obligations—of course it’s tempting to merely get it done, to phone it in.
None of those shortcuts will make the impact you’re capable of making, and none of those approaches will bring you closer to those you’re here to serve. The industrial age is ending, and a new one is beginning. It produces art instead of stuff and it rewards gracefulness.
Happy Thanksgiving!
