Every night
after my four year old son's bath, we read a story book and we say our “remerciements”
and our “pensées speciales” – we send out three "thank yous" and any “special
thoughts” that came from the day. To
model this for our son, my husband and myself share our thank-yous. These thank-yous could be for a coworker who
unplugged the photocopier for me, for the snowplow driver who cleaned the road
for us so we could go safely to school, or simply for one of our cats coming to
cuddle with us to make us feel better.
Our son then follows suit. His
thank-yous have been overwhelming.
Sometimes he says something as simple as "Thanks, Mammy, for
playing trains with me" or "Thanks to (a friend) for jumping in the
snow with me". We do the same for
our special thoughts. These thoughts are
for people who we are thinking of for whatever reason; it is us asking to bless
and help them. Often my son's special
thoughts are for his Dad who travels a lot or for a little boy (who he does not
know) suffering from cancer to whom he gave some of his toys to have with him
at the region's children's hospital. I
wondered if this would work when we started doing this with our son. And then on one evening, he ran back into my
room after we put him to bed to tell me he forgot to thank someone. He wanted to thank his uncle for making him a
Cars 2 book with his name in it.
However, this nightly routine has also made me more thankful because I
am acknowledging these actions out loud.
I initially thought, "Wow!
Three thank-yous that are not repetitive every night. This could be a challenge". However, it has not been. We have truly seen how many people help us
along our daily journey. Also, we have
seen how many people we care about and how many people, whether we know them or
not, we are thinking about in our daily lives.
I am so happy and privileged to share this part of my day with my son
and my husband.
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