Thank You To Our Benicia Friends: 30 Days Of Gratitude

BENICIA, CA — Benicia Patch reader Ric Small shared a special thank you to all his friends in town — those he has known for years and those he has yet to meet.

"We have lived in this wonderful town for 39 yrs and have many friends that we can truly say we love. And for those in town we haven't met yet, we look forward to getting to know you, too! Blessings to you all!"

30 Days Of Gratitude

Patch's “30 Days Of Gratitude” is a series of articles exploring the intentionality of gratitude and featuring bits of wisdom from Patch readers. Come back to Across America Patch every day through November and read more.

Living with gratitude goes beyond merely being thankful. It doesn't mean pretending bad things don't happen, but rather savoring the goodness, according to experts on the topic, including Robert Emmons, a University of California, Davis, psychology professor who is known as the "father of gratitude."

In short, living with gratitude is "an affirmation of goodness" and a recognition of the good in the world as the source of our individual gifts, benefits and blessings. Gratitude is not singularly focused, Emmons said in a YouTube video for the Greater Good Science Center, but rather recognizes that the sources of goodness are other people who "gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives."

RELATED: Tell Someone In Benicia You’re Grateful For Them