I have written and deleted three different versions of today’s Thankful Friday post. This either means I found an abundance of gratitude this week or I’m reaching to find much of any thing. I suspect the later. Michael is working with his school drama department as the assistant director for the Spring play. Recently, he received a certification to teach drama and debate and would like to eventually transition into teaching more drama and less math. Right now, he’s content with helping out as an assistant. The kids are performing Rumors by Neil Simon starting next Friday and so Michael has had many late nights as they work on being ready for opening night. Every evening, he’s sent me texts telling me when he was going to be home and each time he includes his gratitude for me being so supportive of this new venture he’s taken on.

While I appreciate his gratitude, I am a little surprised. My feelings are that of course I would support this. This is what people do in relationships. Unless it is racist, homophobic, trans-phobic, or general hate for those who do not look or talk like you, you support your partner. This also reminds me of just how different our past relationship(s) have been from each other. There are a number of things I learned from my parents marriage that discouraged me from wanting to be married. Then Chris came along and things changed. This also opened my eyes to the things in my parent’s marriage that were good. I saw how they often worked together as a team. When Mom worked late, Dad made sure I made it home safely from school and took charge of dinner. Dad worked early hours and Mom took over morning duties with making sure I had breakfast and was at school on time. While it didn’t always look like they lovingly supported each other, they were still doing the work together.

I am grateful for the lessons I have had in supporting the ones you love. Those lessons in return, I believe, have made me a better person, a better partner. It is important for me in my daily practice to have and find gratitude for things/people in my life. It is rare and somewhat difficult to accept gratitude from others. My instinct is to brush the gratitude aside and make less of the effort I have made to support or help that person. Deep down, I think I do not deserve the gratitude because my actions seem simple, like something anyone would do for another human. Everyday the news and general interactions with society reminds me that simple acts of kindness are not everyone’s normal. Self-help books and gurus all tell us that we are all deserving of love, but how often do we hear that we are deserving of gratitude? We are all deserving of gratitude for our conscious and unconscious acts of kindness.

The next time someone thanks you, don’t brush it aside. Simply say “You are welcome.”