{"id":41465,"date":"2018-11-18T09:42:59","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T14:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=41465"},"modified":"2018-11-18T09:42:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T14:42:59","slug":"giving-thought-to-a-few-words-of-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=41465","title":{"rendered":"Giving thought to a few words of thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kelly Hockenberry<\/strong>, Columnist, The Times<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/KellyColumnNewest916-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8573\" src=\"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/KellyColumnNewest916-1-251x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it for its simplicity. Basically, it is a day dedicated to sharing a meal with people you love. That\u2019s it. No pressure to give or receive gifts. The present is our presence. (Cheesy, I know. But, isn\u2019t it the truth?) And, as the title suggests, it is a time to give thanks for the many wonderful things that get overlooked in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Practicing gratitude is a worthwhile venture, as study after psychological study suggests it is the key to unlocking true happiness.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">It struck me today, as I walked into the Wawa for my (third) cup of coffee, that I say \u201cthanks\u201d A LOT. Hold the door for me, I say \u201cthanks\u201d. Hand me my change, I say \u201cthanks\u201d. Wave me into the line of traffic, I mouth \u201cthanks\u201d and wave. To be honest, I say it without even really thinking. You know what I mean? Not that it\u2019s not sincere\u2026.but, it\u2019s sort of out of habit. I have my parents to thank for my politeness, I suppose. And, I know that I have raised sons who say \u201cthank you\u201d on a regular basis because I was a tyrant about it when they were little. Ironically, as I was teaching them about the importance of saying \u201cthank you\u201d, I was also encouraging them to make eye contact. When I recounted the many times over the course of today that I uttered those words\u2026.I wonder if I practiced what I\u2019d preached. Chances are, not every time. I distinctly remember thanking the cashier at Target for bagging my items, but I was also looking at a text message on my phone. When I got into the parking lot, I said \u201cthank you\u201d to the guy collecting the carts, but I was busy looking down to avoid stepping in slushy piles of snow. I WAS truly thankful in every instance&#8230;however, I could have been more cognizant of my surroundings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Are you interested in doing an experiment with me? How about from now until Thanksgiving Day, we take a moment to think about <i>why <\/i>we are saying \u201cthanks\u201d and put some meaning behind it! Seems easy, but I\u2019m guessing that, in the chaos of the season, we will have to keep this mission in the forefront of our minds. Try it and report back to me in the Comment section below!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Happy Weekend and THANK YOU for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it for its simplicity. Basically, it is a day dedicated to sharing a meal with people you love. That\u2019s it. No pressure to give or receive gifts. The present is our presence. (Cheesy, I know. But, isn\u2019t it the truth?) And, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245],"tags":[7426,740,671,138],"class_list":["post-41465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-featured","tag-holiday","tag-thanks","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41467,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465\/revisions\/41467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}