Welcome to the month of November. We may still be cleaning up in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes, but thankfully, the season is ended and we have no more storms on the horizon.

Speaking of thankfulness, it’s something our team at Good News Pest Solutions takes very seriously. Even when it doesn’t appear as a giant reminder on our monthly calendar, we try to always cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

But since it is in the forefront of everyone’s minds this month (ignore the Christmas merchandise at Walmart!), we thought we’d take a look at the nature of gratitude, thankfulness, and just how blessed we all are.

We Give Thanks

It’s probably not a big surprise that the term thankful in our modern day use has its origins in Middle English. That would be the language best remembered via Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

The original English language was a mish mash of Celtic, Germanic and Norse dialects, with a little Frisian and Dutch thrown in, all drawn together by the Anglo-Saxon peoples into a common dialect.

In Old English, þancian meant "give thanks; to recompense, to reward." “Thankōjanan” became danke in German, and thanken in Middle English. The root, þonc, means thought. So in many ways, to thank someone is to send them good thoughts.

With a Grateful Heart

While gratitude may seem similar to thankful, there are subtle differences between the terms, based on their origins. Gratitude comes from the Latin word, gratus, and it signifies a feeling of appreciation by the recipient of another's kindness.

The Latin root falls closer in meaning to pleasing, welcome or agreeable. Gratus is tied to grace and gratuity as well as gratitude. In fact, the even older origins in Old French, gwere or gwreto means favor, regard, esteem or good will. It’s where we get the phrase, “saying grace” as our pre-meal prayers.

Connecting the Dots

The beauty of our American English is that we now tie these concepts together, to give a new meaning.

Thankfulness is a feeling of appreciation for both big and small things in your life. Often, it’s specific – you say thanks for a gift, or for someone holding the elevator and other small acts of kindness.

Gratitude is generally a more lasting emotion that arises from reflecting on the many things you are thankful for. We can say thank you to just about anyone off the street. But gratitude recognizes a deeper connection. We are grateful to our parents for giving us food and shelter growing up; we are grateful to God for the things He provides that we cannot do for ourselves.

So we thank/think positively of someone who helps us, and we have gratitude for/hold in high esteem someone who has given us many things to be thankful for.

Both are important and both deserve remembering. After all, someone around your Thanksgiving dinner table is almost bound to ask, “What are you thankful for this year?”

Practical Application

We’re here to help. We strongly suggest you start making a list of things you’re thankful for. Not only is it helpful when you get to that dinner table, it can actually improve your physical and mental health!

If you spend just 15 minutes a day, five days a week practicing gratitude, your mental wellness will be enhanced. And not only will you be less depressed and have less anxiety, the reduction of stress leads to better sleep an, a healthier heart.

We recommend picking up a small notebook you can carry around with you throughout the day and when something happens (or reminds you) that you’re thankful for, you can jot it down. You can also use the Notes app on your phone, but there’s an added benefit to physically writing it down.

A few suggestions to get you started:

1. Family & friends
2. Good health
3. Having a home and a job.
4. Your pets
5. Weekends
6. Music
7. Indoor plumbing
8. Duct tape
9. Fresh air
10. Google
11. Naps
12. Farmer’s Market
13. Memories
14. Perspective
15. Toilet paper
16. Cat videos
17. Forgiveness
18. Deodorant (yours or someone else’s!)
19. A good book
20. Pest-free home

Wait, you don’t have a pest-free home? What are you waiting for? Our Go Green Perimeter Plus will take care of that problem for you faster than driving to Grandmother’s house. Now’s as good a time as any to give us a call!