Showing gratitude is one of the most powerful gifts we can offer each other. It can cost little or nothing to reach out to another person and suggest a gracious word.

For instance, when I act as the world’s oldest and crankiest ball boy at St. Cloud High School in central Florida, I see examples everywhere of people who should be thanked.

I visit all the cheerleaders and trainers on the sidelines. No one takes time to thank those unsung “heroes and sheroes.”

“Small cheer and great welcome make a merry feast,” wrote William Shakespeare. How about the guys standing over a hot grill in the end zone cooking cheeseburgers to help supplement the school’s budget? And the mothers and friends who work the concession stand? No one thanks them and they are not being paid. The band and its directors and majorettes are taken for granted. Many often pay for the privilege of playing an instrument in the school band.

It takes a many volunteer to pull off a high school football game. The school’s ROTC Cadet Corps volunteer to park cars and direct traffic, Trainers and managers work the sidelines dispensing water to keep players hydrated, while taping ankles and administering to the injured.

Add the cheer squads and folks selling tickets and cleaning up afterward. The list goes on, including unpaid assistant coaches donating their time and talents.

We can always find something for which to be grateful. That gratitude is the key that unlocks the door to the fullness of a football game at “The Dawg Pound,” home of the St. Cloud Bulldogs.

Gratitude turns a meal into a feast, a house into a home and peace for today, which creates a better vision of tomorrow. These difficult days are not a time to reflect on what you do not have. Hemingway said, “Think of what you can do with what you have.”

Being gracious to others costs nothing and pays huge dividends. Smart people invest those returns in what I refer to as a “favor bank” for future withdrawal.

Think of this cast of characters we see at a Friday night high school football game. They come together to celebrate the best of our youth… the best America has to offer.

When you possess a gift, it seems critically important that it be paid back. Find ways to reach out to others during this wonderful season of Thanksgiving. Yes… thanks for giving and paying it forward. Gratitude turns what you have into enough.

If you are not thankful for what you have, we won’t expect you to be thankful for what you may be about to receive.

John Kennedy said, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

Be grateful for what you have. You may be living someone else’s dreams. Live them well. Happy people are that way because they are thankful… and it is thankful people who are happiest.

Michael Aun, CSP®, CPAE® Hall of Fame Speaker is a co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Catholic Soul”®