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Today I wanted to take some time to express how grateful I am for all that I have. Whatever we focus on in life we create more of. Because most people focus on what they do not have, they create a culture of lack around themselves. It is only when we focus on the things great and small that we do have that we create a culture of abundance around us.
I am thankful for my friends, my family, my job and the fact that I am financially blessed enough to be able to contribute to those causes that I believe are important. My father is a philanthropist of the highest order, and from an early age, he instilled in me the belief that we are stewards to our world. That all things in nature and of man, from the trees in the Amazon rainforest, to the children living in poverty, to the great institutions of research and higher learning should be nurtured and supported.
He believed that we should always give our 10% - but that our contributions should not necessarily be monetary. That's why, as soon as I became a teenager, I was expected to donate 10% of my time to a charitable cause. As I grew older, I donated less time, and more money. This was not a religious thing with my dad, he's an agnostic and doesn't take his direction from God. This was just his sincere belief that it was our duty as world citizens.
There have been periods of time in my life, when I had lost my way and was homeless myself, when I did not give. I think that is why I am so careful to give back now, because I can remember the one Thanksgiving where I was living in a park in a tent, and a group of high school students brought us a "Thanksgiving dinner" - but when they realized we had no way to cook the food, they refocused their efforts and invited us to come to their church the next day to eat food in their gymnasium. I'm not sure that I had ever been more grateful in my life. I felt so blessed that someone who didn't know me would make sure that I had a hot meal to eat on that Thanksgiving day.
That was 15 years ago this Thanksgiving. There have been a lot of changes in my life since then. I am blessed and I am grateful.
Ciao for now.
I am thankful for my friends, my family, my job and the fact that I am financially blessed enough to be able to contribute to those causes that I believe are important. My father is a philanthropist of the highest order, and from an early age, he instilled in me the belief that we are stewards to our world. That all things in nature and of man, from the trees in the Amazon rainforest, to the children living in poverty, to the great institutions of research and higher learning should be nurtured and supported.
He believed that we should always give our 10% - but that our contributions should not necessarily be monetary. That's why, as soon as I became a teenager, I was expected to donate 10% of my time to a charitable cause. As I grew older, I donated less time, and more money. This was not a religious thing with my dad, he's an agnostic and doesn't take his direction from God. This was just his sincere belief that it was our duty as world citizens.
There have been periods of time in my life, when I had lost my way and was homeless myself, when I did not give. I think that is why I am so careful to give back now, because I can remember the one Thanksgiving where I was living in a park in a tent, and a group of high school students brought us a "Thanksgiving dinner" - but when they realized we had no way to cook the food, they refocused their efforts and invited us to come to their church the next day to eat food in their gymnasium. I'm not sure that I had ever been more grateful in my life. I felt so blessed that someone who didn't know me would make sure that I had a hot meal to eat on that Thanksgiving day.
That was 15 years ago this Thanksgiving. There have been a lot of changes in my life since then. I am blessed and I am grateful.
Ciao for now.
