Practicing the art of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not just a practice we should practice at one time of year. We can benefit from being thankful year round. In this article, four WordPress professionals tell us for what they are thankful.

Over the river, and through the wood,

To Grandfather’s house we go; (in the song we sange, it was grandmother’s house)

the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

through the white and drifted snow.

Over the River and Through the Wood

I remember singing this song as a kid. The song was actually a poem written by Lydia Maria Child. It was published in Flowers for Children, Volume 2 in 1844.

I, however, remember singing it as a song. We sang it at Thanksgiving time. It is how we got ready for the holiday in elementary school. Our teacher, Mrs. Whitterman was good about teaching us these songs.

Funny thing, I never remember going to my grandma’s house in a sleigh. It was in a care. We did go to the ends of the earth (it seemed like), but never over a river and through the woods. Although I will say, there were plenty of trees going to her house.

Thanksgiving is always a time to give thanks and gratitude for what we have. Our friends in Canada celebrated last month. I remember seeing some of my friends sharing pictures of the turkey they baked.

When does your country celebrate Thanksgiving?

The good part of celebrating Thanksgiving at the end of the year is that it is already natural to reflect on the year. We think about the things that went well and those that did not. We think about the things we want to see improvement in the new year. A lot of reflection happens in the final two months of the year.

Fred Meyer of WP Shout has collected his thankful thoughts in a nice blog post.

I managed to get four MainWP users and WordPress professionals to give me their thoughts about what they are thankful for. I hope you enjoy their thoughts.

MainWP users share

Paul Aswad – Touche Studio

I’m thankful for everything this amazing plugin (MainWP) has to offer, managing 40 sites with just a few clicks. A plugin that is not buggy, and support staff that are really amazing “just in case” they’re needed. And the awesome facebook community that comes with this plugin!!

Tim Colling – A Servant Heart Website Design Marketing

I am thankful professionally for my clients and their loyalty and their business

Also for my team of content creators and my wonderful content manager

Also for WordPress, MainWP, WPEngine and the Genesis framework

I am thankful personally for my wife, my family and friends, the nation that I live in, and for the salvation that I have in Jesus.

Joshua Vandercar – Typewheel

My family and I recently moved from Minnesota to Indiana, purchased our first home, and welcomed our fourth child – all as I work to launch a business. Itʼs been year filled with great stress and great joy. In the midst of it all, these are things for which I can say I am overwhelmingly grateful.

• My wife and kids have been lovingly supportive and wonderfully adaptive to all life has tossed our way. Together, we journey. For family, I am thankful.
• I give thanks for my neighborhood, home, and the small utility shed turned home office that sits outside. My family has never been in position to put down roots, but I think we will now be doing so for a time. That’s good.
• Books. They can be such an under-appreciated stress reliever. This Thanksgiving, I must say, “Thank God for books!” Theyʼve been my recent go-to when I need a breather.
• The open-source community has been a great encouragement and resource as I carry on my work. It is good to know that even if my work may not make money at times, it is benefitting many. Thank you for your contributions!
• I am thankful for several quality apps and services that I’ve hunted down which have allowed me to reclaim an unimaginable amount of time this year.

Andrea Whitmer – Nuts and Bolts Media

I’m most thankful for the WordPress and Genesis communities and the many members of those groups who have shared code, served as virtual coworkers and sounding boards, and become great friends. I’ve

been fortunate to work from home for nearly 6 years now doing what I love, in large part because of those who have been generous enough to guide me along the way.

On a similar note, I’m thankful for my rockstar husband who has been patient through the million pivots and reboots that are part of running an online business. There are days we barely have time to make eye contact, but he rolls with it and does what he can (which is a lot) to support me and ensure I never have to go back to a “real” job.

Finally, I’m thankful for technology in general. In the early days of the internet, I never could have imagined the world we’d eventually live in. I’m still blown away by the ability to connect with anyone, anywhere, right from my desk or from the tiny computer in my pocket. My social circle is no longer limited to the people in my neighborhood or the town where I live, and I’m a better person for it.

Thankful

So, what am I thankful for? Good question, thanks for asking.

MainWP

Well, before I ever started writing articles for MainWP, I was using the plugin to help manage my WordPress installs. In fact, it was Andrea Whitmer who convinced me to go all in with MainWP. I was using another one, but being able to set up my own install and operate without additional investment was key.

Certainly, if you want to have a business of managing WordPress installs, it would be good to invest in the MainWP Membership. There is even a coupon which you can find at this link.

Ivica Delic

If you don’t know Ivica, then why not? He is the one who runs the MainWP Users Facebook group, along with 15 others. The man knows the WordPress ecosystem as well as anyone I know. He is one of the most helpful persons you can meet.

He knows about so many tools that he started Freelancers Tools. This is a great site to bookmark.

Page Builders

I have never been known as a great coder or developer. I have certainly learned a lot, but coding was never my strong suit. Further, I am not the world’s best designer. I lie, somewhere in between the two skills.

Page builders really help those like me. I can put together a page pretty quickly using builders, and it makes me appreciate the help they provide. I have settled on Beaver Builder as my page builder of choice, but, obviously, there are over 30 page builders to choose from and they keep getting better.

Virtual Colleagues

I have a number of “virtual colleagues” that I consult for almost everything. Some are WordPress developers or designers while others are copywriters and content marketers. This definitely helps me as I have someone to vet ideas and get feedback. Platforms such as Facebook and Slack help facilitate these types or relationships. Some of you are reading this post, so I am so thankful to you for your thoughts and feedback. In some cases, my “virtual colleagues” have jumped in and helped me out of a jam.

Conclusion

Being grateful is a healthy thing for our lives. In fact, in an article on Forbes, Amy Morin gives us 7 scientific benefits for thankfulness. Morin says

In fact, gratitude may be one of the most overlooked tools that we all have access to every day. Cultivating gratitude doesn’t cost any money and it certainly doesn’t take much time, but the benefits are enormous.

It is tempting to just think about thanksgiving during the end of the year or when our Thanksgiving holiday comes around, but maybe we should make an effort to be thankful year-round.

It seems, as UC Davis Health has noted, that thanksgiving is good medicine.

Do you practice thanksgiving and gratitude regularly? How do you incorporate it into your life?