Simply...Grateful.

​An “attitude of gratitude” is something to embrace each and every day. 

Every year at Thanksgiving dinner, I would always bug my parents and family and whomever else happened to be at our celebration feast to go around the table and say what they were grateful for, and so this year, I decided to bug my tour family and thought we’d share with all of you. 

Courtney says…… “There are so many things I am thankful for when it comes to Letters From Home, from seeing the world to having new experiences every day, I honestly believe that there is no better job in the world. But what makes Letters From Home truly special are the many people we meet and the many people who touched our lives daily. I am so thankful for every veteran, for every active military personnel, for every person who helps support them, and for the opportunity to help those people realize how special they are. So for this Thanksgiving I want to let every person we’ve met along the way and every person we may or may not meet down the road know that I am extremely thankful for them. Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your service and sacrifice, thank you for your support, and most of all thank you for the love you give every day. You truly make the world a better place”.

Dan says….”My mother had a friend pass away from brain cancer a couple of years ago. In her final days, she chose to travel the world and spend time with those she loved. She also encouraged those around her, my mother included, to find a moment in each and every day to be appreciative of. My mother, who is a life-lover with an attitude of gratitude, began to add this to her daily routine, and she passed it off to me. I find this practice, this taking a moment every day to step back and examine a slice of time from the outside in and say, "This. This is my moment. Of my many special moments in each day, this is the one I am actively choosing to step outside of and be thankful for right now, right here, as it is happening" -- this practice fosters gratitude, genuine happiness, and a greater appreciation and admiration for all of life's little gifts, both big and small. I find that these moments are rarely spent alone, but rather with people. Unlike sharing ice cream or the shade of a tree or a park bench, sharing an experience (whether totally extraordinary or entirely mundane) with others never seems to divide the quantity or quality of experience amongst those involved, but rather, multiply it. Exponentially. Today (and all days) I am exceptionally thankful for the people who surround me week by week, year by year, who engage in the experience of life with me and enrich my existence tenfold. Be it one quite close to me -- a best friend or a family member or a lover -- or one with whom I have never and may never again cross paths -- a barista or cashier or toll booth worker or child in a park -- it is the lives we touch and those that touch us which make this and every day colorful and rich. Thank you to those from all corners of the earth, from all walks of , and to you, yourself, reading this now, for helping to manifest such findable, all-inclusive human joy”.

For me, my heart is exploding with gratitude on this amazing day. This year, the source of my gratitude comes from the influence that my dad continues to have on me each and every day. When he passed away in 2015, I thought that I had lost my best friend, but the truth is, you never lose the people who you love, they just become a part of you. Dad would never meet a stranger, and everyone he met- weather he knew them for years or if they just passed on the street- everyone he met would feel special, and he was able to form an instant bond with them. Every day on tour with Letters From Home, we now have the privilege to meet amazing and incredible people who constantly remind me that humanity is good. While you may hear about the negative things on the news, that is just the exception, because at this VERY moment, there are millions of positive things and acts of love going on that the media will never cover, and on tour we get to see it every single day. People are everything. I am grateful for our veterans and active military who allow me to live in a country where I can be free. I am grateful for the next generation of our youth, as in their eyes I see so much potential and love for our future. I am grateful for my family and my extended tour family who make life interesting, amazing and bright in my heart every single day. I am grateful for love, which truly surrounds us all the time. 

From the entire Letters From Home family, we love YOU. Happy Thanksgiving, and we can’t wait to see you this holiday season!