November 10, 2025
Gratitude is one of those things we all feel more often than we say. We think it, we mean it, we sometimes even write it in a text we never send. Gertrude Stein’s words, “Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone”, are a gentle slap on the wrist, reminding us that feeling thankful isn’t the same as expressing it.
I’ve been guilty of quiet gratitude. The kind where you smile to yourself and think, “Wow, that person really came through for me,” and then… you move on. You never tell them. You assume they know. You assume they don’t need to hear it. But they probably do.
The truth is, unspoken gratitude is like a wrapped gift that never gets opened. It still exists, but no one gets to experience it. And the funny part? When you finally do speak it, it almost always feels awkward. The timing’s off. You stumble over the words. It comes out too serious, too emotional, or too random. Yet the person you thank never seems to care about how you say it, they’re just glad you did.
Sometimes I think we confuse gratitude with politeness. “Thank you” at the checkout counter is good manners. “Thank you for being there when I didn’t know what I needed”, that’s gratitude. One is transactional. The other is transformational.
There are moments that stick with me where I wish I’d said something. The teacher who saw I was struggling and didn’t make a big deal out of it. The friend who dropped off coffee the morning after a sleepless night with a newborn. The coworker who covered for me without needing credit. I still think about them, I still feel grateful, but most of them probably don’t know it.
We tell ourselves gratitude lives in our hearts, but it doesn’t do much good if it stays locked there. I think Stein’s point wasn’t just about saying thank you more often, it was about living gratitude. Letting it leak into how we talk to people, how we treat them, how we move through the world.
Because when you look around long enough, you start to notice all the small things worth saying thanks for, the barista who remembers your order, the green light you didn’t expect to catch, the five quiet minutes you somehow found before the house woke up.
And maybe that’s what this Thought of the Day is really about: making your gratitude louder than your comfort zone. Saying it when it feels unnecessary. Writing it when it feels overdue. Living it before it’s too late.
So, here’s mine: thank you. For reading, for showing up, for thinking right alongside me each day. Gratitude shared is gratitude multiplied, and this little corner of the internet wouldn’t exist without you.
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