July 17, 2025
Some mornings, the Thought of the Day and Question of the Day collide like peanut butter and jelly—simple ingredients, wildly complementary. Today’s post explores how generosity and gratitude can turn an average moment into something extraordinary, and why it’s okay (necessary, even) to admit the things we’re just plain bad at. Spoiler: I’ll go first, and it’s not pretty.
Thought of the Day:
Generosity and gratitude, turn good into great.
This is one of those truths that doesn’t hit you until you’re the one on the receiving end of it.
A cup of coffee is good. A friend who brings it to you before you’ve even fully opened your eyes? That’s great.
Getting a text that says “thinking of you” is nice. But knowing someone actually was thinking of you? That’s better than nice—it’s transformative.
Generosity isn’t just about writing checks or donating old sneakers. It’s about attention. It’s remembering someone’s weird salad preference or letting them vent without offering ten solutions. Gratitude is the mirror image—recognizing those quiet offerings and not letting them disappear into the blur of daily life.
When both generosity and gratitude show up at the same time, that’s when the good stuff happens. Not just polite, smile-and-nod good. I’m talking about soul-level, tell-your-grandkids kind of good.
It’s also how I try to run this space. Sharing my thoughts here might be a small gesture, but I’m deeply grateful every time someone reads it, reflects on it, or (my favorite) emails me a one-line response like, “You’re not as weird as I thought.” That’s a win.
Question of the Day:
What two things do you consider yourself to be very bad at?
Okay, I’ll go first:
- Holding my tongue.
If words were firecrackers, I’d be a one-man Fourth of July display. I don’t mean to overshare or interrupt, but sometimes the thoughts come flying out faster than the filter can catch them. That’s how you end up telling someone at a PTA meeting that you once fell asleep in a Target bathroom (true story).
- Dressing animals in human clothing.
Look, animals should not be dress in human clothes. Dogs, cats, the alpaca up the road, none of the need to be dressed. But one Christmas, my wife decided she just had to dress the cats for a Holiday card photo. It did not go well and I refuse to participate in such shenanigans ever again.
What are you bad at? Not in a self-deprecating, “I guess I’m just the worst” way. But honestly. What do you struggle with that you’ve (mostly) made peace with? There’s power in saying it out loud. Or typing it into the void of the internet. Same thing.
Want more like this?
If today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day made you think (or laugh, or cringe), I’d love to hear your answers. Drop a comment below—or better yet, get these sent straight to your inbox every morning.