I want to share my Thanksgiving email to the Sedona Verde Valley Association of REALTORS®. (Why should they get all of the fun?) While it's directed at real estate agents, anybody can enjoy it, so please do.

********************************************

Thanksgiving, yay! I love the idea of Thanksgiving. A day specially set aside to gather up our family and friends and loved ones and give thanks for our blessings and on top of that, eat a feast. How simple and elegant is that? My youngest son long ago designated Thanksgiving as his favorite holiday of the year. He says that it’s the purest of all days – no stress, no obligations, just the pure enjoyment of your loved ones, your blessings, and the feast.

I said this to a guy the other day. His response was along the lines of “Bah! What do I have to be thankful for? I’ve lost my investment properties, I filed bankruptcy this year, I had to accept a horrible loan mod on my house, I have 63 dollars in the bank and the bills are piling up, and if this next escrow doesn’t close I’m in big trouble! Thanksgiving, my…..derriere!”

Wow.

We all have stress. We’re all living in and trying to deal with this wretched economy. We all wish that the money situation throughout the whole world was better. However, I venture to guess that my son will pull out of his financial problems sooner than REALTOR® Scrooge because my son is focusing on his blessings, his “haves,” as opposed to his “don’t haves” and “used to haves.”

I learned a long time ago that when we notice a good thing it gets bigger. The problem is that when we obsess about a scary thing, it gets bigger, too. I’m not saying “Put on the rose colored glasses and be irresponsible - ignore the distress in our lives. Just pretend that it isn’t happening!” I am saying that the thing that we feed grows. The thing that gets our attention is the thing that thrives.

Can I give you an example? Let’s say that I have floor duty. Listen to this talk that I give myself while I’m drinking my coffee: “Oh, Boy. I am so freakin’ broke. I’m in deep doo-doo for sure! If things don’t turn around today I might as well just go put my head in the oven. I need a good escrow right now! Today! Yes! I will make somebody buy something! I will!” Or, let’s pretend that instead I think, “Wow. Great coffee! Look at that sunrise. Hi, bird! I am so lucky to live in a place that I can see this. I’m lucky to have eyes to see it with. Hey! Good job, God! You know, I hope that I can help somebody today. Those money problems? Whatever. I have faith that if I do the right thing it’ll all work out OK.” So when those buyers walk in, which attitude are they going to want to hang around and do business with? Who are they going to trust to take care of their best interests?

Is it really that simple? Yes, I think that it is. I do believe that good energy begets more good energy. I also believe that negativity attracts more negativity, and then we get even more negative and there you go – there’s a head in the oven.

Believe that happy thoughts bring happy things. What have we got to lose? Call me a crackpot and a Pollyanna if you will – I’m used to it. Whatever you choose to believe is up to you.

BUT…………let me give you another example of thoughts becoming reality. I have a shirt. I love this shirt – it fits perfectly, I adore the color, and whenever I wear it I feel good and get lots of compliments. You know what I’m talking about – we all have one of those shirts. Since I’m so attached to this shirt I take good care of it. If it falls off of the hanger it doesn’t lie crumpled up on the closet floor – it gets picked up and lovingly hung back where it belongs. This favorite shirt of mine has lasted for years, and it will still be around when I’m 60. I have another shirt that I don’t like one bit. It’s scratchy, it rubs the back of my neck, when I wear it makes my skin look green and it adds an easy 10 pounds. This one I let the children wear for dress-up and cooking and Easter-egg painting. When they’re done it gets tossed into the wash with the Levi’s, on hot. THIS shirt is obviously of shoddy workmanship and it has always been a waste of time and money because look – it’s stained and falling apart.

The thing is that these 2 shirts were almost identical. They’re the same brand and the same material - different colors and a little different pattern. I bought them on the same day. But since I value one and resent the other, my actions have made them into entirely different animals.

So what if the same principal is true of real estate or the people that we meet, or our careers, or buyers, or our listings? Take the paragraph about the shirts and substitute the idea of a spouse or a friend or a house or a client. The concept is the same, and so is the result. Negative thoughts and feelings can turn a simple thing into a pain in the neck that we’re glad to see go into the rag bag or the expired file. An attitude is all that it took to nurture one and ruin the other.

Some of you know that I volunteer for Trauma Intervention Programs. Not to add a downer, but I want to make an observation. I was at a home the other day to be with a woman whose husband had just committed suicide. The economy had gotten them. He left her a note that said that he had lost everything and so he was checking out. I hugged his wife who was inconsolable and crying her eyes out. I thought to myself that his priorities were skewed – he certainly had not lost everything. He just perceived that he had, and he forgot who and what are really important. He didn’t count his blessings.

I’ll start. My blessings are:

My family. I have a husband that is a saint, 2 wonderful sons, 4 amusing and adorable grandchildren, 2 daughters-in-law that complement the family beautifully, and in-laws that have accepted and welcomed me. I am blessed.

My health. Sure, it’s not perfect. Without medication my cholesterol goes astonishingly high. I need to go back on my diet and get back to the exercising. My eyes went south when I turned 40, and the readers are getting thicker and my arms seem to be getting shorter. My hair seems to have forgotten that it belongs on my head instead of moving to new and unfamiliar places. Gravity sucks, and that’s all OK. These are the worst of my complaints, and for that I am blessed.

My mind. As strange as my brain can be, I like it. It’s not schizophrenic or damaged (at least I don’t think that it is) and it usually operates pretty well. I am blessed with a working brain.

You guys. These past few years have been incredible. I am honored to have been part of your leadership team. I am amazed at the caliber of the people that I’ve gotten to work with – this includes staff, and the leadership ahead of me and those that are coming up, and you. I’ve learned, I’ve made friends, I’ve curled my lip a time or two. I grew mentally and emotionally. I’ve learned what I am capable of and I’ve learned restraint. I went to places that I would not have chosen for myself and absolutely loved. I have been blessed by you, my cohorts in SVVAR. Thank you.

My home, my neighborhood, my city, my community, my county, my state, my country. I love where I live. Even if we think that our elected politicians are idiots, we got to elect them and we get to say what we think about them. We are blessed.

Now - your turn. What are your blessings? I would love to hear about them.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!