Apples of Gratitude

I love the lake. Each day my morning routine includes getting up at sunrise and walking to the lake near my home. This 3 mile loop is when I do my best thinking and primes my mindset with “gratitude”. Gratitude for my life. For my blessings. For my family, friends, health, career and so much more.

One morning, my daughter decided to join me. As we chatted and walked nonchalantly along the meandering path of the lake, a father with his young son approached from the opposite direction.

“Hello, good morning”, I said with a smile.

“Good morning”, he replied with equal enthusiasm.

“How are you guys?” I asked, expecting the normal “good” reply.

But before the father could reply, the child, almost instinctively responded, “I’m thankful”.

The father smiled and said, “we are good, how about you”?

I was stunned and I’m sure my expression showed it.

Did a 4 year old just say “I’m thankful”? How had he learned something that took me almost 50 years to realize?

“Well, that’s a great way to be”, I replied clumsily. Have a good day.

Megan and I finished our walk that morning, sharing our amazement at the little boy’s statement and the impact he had on us.

Later that week, again on my normal morning walk, I ran into the father again. I told him how impressed I was with his son’s response of “thankful” and how rare that seems to be in the world today.

He smiled, beaming with pride and humility and said “thank you, we try”. At that moment, something my mom always said came to mind:

“Derrick, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

I’m not sure who originally said this but it captured the essence of the moment and the importance of modeling our values to those around us, especially our children. And how we are the tree and they are the “apples”.

I see the father almost daily now on my walks. He always waves and says hello…smiling at me almost like we now share a secret about life, the importance of gratitude and growing our “apples”.

What are you grateful for? Are you intentionally modeling your values to your children? Do they see this?

In other words, how are your “apples”?