Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Thankfulness / Gratitude



There was a section in Maureen Healy's blog about gratitude that made me smile. She talks about how her dad used to say "Rub a Dub-Dub, Thanks for the Grub" before meals. And although said in a jokey way, it was a reminder about giving thanks.

We have something similar in our house. It began after we'd had Japanese students boarding with us for a while. They would precede each meal by showing respect to the food in front of them with a bow and say the words "Itadaki-masu" (thank you for the food). Now to an un-trained ear Itadaki-masu actually sounds like "eat a duckymus". Who knows what a duckymus is (some sort of duck-billed dinosaur perhaps?), but it tickled our fancy, so now, years later, we still proceed our meals (much to the confusion of guests) with the chant "eat a duckymus". I guess it's similar to Maureen's father with his "rub a dub dub"... it's our way of giving thanks and regardless of words used, the sincerity behind them is always there.

Maureen has some great insights at http://www.growinghappykids.com/


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