100 Pedals

Recovery for Parents Dealing with Addiction in their Families

# A Week of Gratitude

November 24, 2025 by Dave Cooke 5 Comments

> Choose to be grateful for your life and everything that exists in it. You only get one life to live. Every day is an opportunity to appreciate the gifts that exist within it. Now, more than ever, be grateful for the gifts you have been given.

There are times where the darkness of the moment overshadows all that could be celebrated in our lives. In a moment of dark reflection one can easily focus on what is missing instead of what exists. Or, focusing on what exists as bad, failing to notice all the good that is actually present.

Adversity of any kind is disruptive. It can elicit a wide variety of inferior emotions. Despite the attention we let it garner, the adversity that exists is not the accurate picture of our life. It is the part of the picture we have a tendency to zoom in on most. In reality, each of us has so much more; we simply need to do a better job of seeing and celebrating it.

There is a great deal of blessings in your life provided you take time to look for it, to celebrate it, and give thanks for it.

Do something special this Thanksgiving - commit to a week of gratitude. Make a daily commitment this week to discover and focus on something that is truly a wonderful component in your life. Take a moment to pause, get quiet, still your mind, and give thanks for those aspects of your life that is good and brings you joy. Give thanks for all of them. Focus on what makes their existence in your life a blessing. Find joy in acknowledging its presence.

Make time to share your gratitude for those gifts. Make them the focal point of your thoughts whenever you can. Give those gifts the highest priorities of your attention above and over the adversities that are so easily distract you. You will find that as you get better at focusing on the gifts in your life, the stronger and more inspired you will be as you recognize the impact of their presence.

Happy Thanksgiving in this week of Gratitude. Peace!

> 100Pedals has just released two FREE programs for parents. “Addiction and theFamily: Four Guidelines to Embrace” is an audio progam that provides parents perspective for dealing with addiction in the family. To obtain your digital download click here. “Addiction Conversation” is a weekly podcast where Dave Cooke interviews parents, those in recovery, counselors, and legal experts to provide their perspectives from their experiences with addiction. To listen to an individual session click here or to download the podcast to I-Tunes click here.

Filed Under: featured Tagged With: being grateful, gratitude, Thanksgiving

### Comments

1. Cathy Taughinbaugh says:
   November 24, 2025 at 1:47 pm

   Hey Dave,

   Great advice to commit to a week of gratitude. Hopefully after the week, it can spill over to the other weeks of the year. Not matter how deep the struggle, gratitude is the key to happiness. Thank you for the inspiration and have a great Thanksgiving!

   Reply
   - Dave Cooke says:
     November 24, 2025 at 4:25 pm

     Thank you, Cathy for the supportive and encouraging comments. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving, as well!

     Reply
2. Bill White, Licensed Counselor says:
   November 28, 2025 at 12:21 pm

   Strong and necessary message/reminder here, Dave. Thank you for it. And it truly is a discipline of daily commitment when it comes to discovering and focusing upon the “wonderful” parts of our lives. Not that they don’t exist - just stepping away from the whirlwind to take account - and giving thanks. Guess that’s where the pause, getting quiet, mind stillness dynamics come into play, huh. Yep, that’s hard - but necessary and nurturing.

   You do fine work, Dave. Again, thanks you for the gratitude reminder…

   Bill

   Reply
   - Dave Cooke says:
     November 29, 2025 at 9:57 am

     Thanks, Bill. Appreciate the encouraging and supportive words. The key to it all is making time for quiet. If you can’t silence the noise, chatter is all you hear.

     Reply
3. Lisa Frederiksen - BreakingTheCycles.com says:
   November 30, 2025 at 9:53 am

   I love this idea, Dave, and will definitely be doing it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the worry and lists of things to do - important reminder - thank you!

   Reply

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