Giving Thanks! - A Time to Reflect & Celebrate

UPS Lifer

Well-Known Member
When I was working at UPS my favorite holiday of the year was Thanksgiving.

(For me) It has always been a holiday without a lot of stress. Family getting together - eating great food and watching football! Oh! I almost forgot...4 days off in a row! How great is that... coming up on the most stressful time of the year (for UPSers). On Xmas, we are all dead to the world and it is so hard to enjoy what the real season is about.

This is a wonderful time of the year to reflect on everything we have. Here are some thoughts that were shared with me and I would like to share with you!

Accept - Acknowledge - Appreciate

The 3 "A"s should replace the 3 "C"s which are Complaining, Condeming, and Criticizing. The 3 "A"s will get you much farther in developing positive relationships.

Do Something For Someone Else

One of the greatest rewards in helping others is the uplifted feeling your get while doing something philanthropic.

Put It All In Perspective

It is often easy to lose perspective on exactly how much we do have. It is easy to feel less than satisfied as your neighbor drives up in a new car or goes on an exotic vacation. These expenses don't always equate to happiness. Remember, what you have is always greater than what you need!

Focus On The Positive

Keeping a positive outlook on life will change your entire perspective. People have a tendency to remember the bad things that happen more than the good things. An exercise to try is to list all the people that have had a positive influence on your life. You will quickly realize how much good happens from nearly everyone you spend time with.

Finally... During the Thanksgiving Holiday take time out of your schedule and spend one day with your family doing something that you all will remember in the future. This is a time to show your family your love during a season when you may not be able to spend as much quality time with them as you would want to.


Happy Thanksgivng!
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Thanksgiving is that time of year when all native Americans ponder that age old question of:

"Should we have built the wall to keep out the illegals!"

:happy-very:

It is a great holiday and hope everyone has a happy and joyous one with the family.
 

Sammie

Well-Known Member
When I was working at UPS my favorite holiday of the year was Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgivng!

Nice thread, Lifer. I agree, those 4 days off at Thanksgiving were a lifesaver. And as for the holiday itself, it's a relief to have one with little stress, and that doesn't require gifts, decorations and the commercial push to purchase.

Hope you all enjoy your mini vacation next week. My son had his first child in October so we'll be enjoying a little "Butterball" of our own.
 

UPS Lifer

Well-Known Member
Congrats Sammie on your new addition to the family. What a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday and emphasize it's true meaning!!!
 

toonertoo

Most Awesome Dog
Staff member
Congrats Sammie, Grandma!!
Wonderful post UPS LIFER.

I am going to enjoy my 4 day holiday. Instead of working on Friday, even if it is double time.
I have so much to be thankful for, and Im going to spend my 4 days off with the love of my life. My perspective has greatly changed.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Hey Cach,

Did you ever see a T-Shirt (it's been a few years since I saw it) where a native American was sitting atop his horse upon a hill and holding a compound bow raised in the air with the words, "What If?" printed below.

As a former bowhunter, I always loved that T-Shirt and with my anti-imperialism beliefs, it really did/does appeal to me!

BTW folks: I was on vacation this past week and will also be this coming week and was curious if they are passing out the turkeys at work?

No, not the supervisors but the real kind which use to have feathers!

LMAO at Tie who's to busy stirring the pot in the contract threads that he'll miss this one!

THE BIG TURKEY!!

:lol::lol::lol::thumbup:
 

Sammie

Well-Known Member
BTW folks: I was on vacation this past week and will also be this coming week and was curious if they are passing out the turkeys at work?

:lol::lol::lol::thumbup:

Wkmac,

We get our Cornish hens at Christmas, not Thanksgiving.

And have a good vaca BTW!!:punk:
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
OK, here we are 2 days after T-Giving and like most folks, still working on those leftovers.:wink2:

If you talk with most folks, this holiday has about universal support as it serves to pull the core family back together in our fast pace world in which we live and most people are so glad for this special day. But who do we thank? The pilgrims of Plymouth? Even though they get the credit for T-Giving in 1621', it was a Virginia colony at Berkeley Plantation that first had a Thanksgiving celebration on Dec. 4, 1619. This day of Thanksgivng was written into the colony's charter and thus read,

"Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

In 1622', the settlement suffered an Indian Massacre that killed many settlers and the survivors abadoned Berkely and withdrew down the James River to Jamestown and more secure areas. Of course Plymouth continued and the rest as they say is history.

The real mover and shaker behind a Thanksgiving holiday was actually a woman by the name of Sarah Hale who was a writer and magazine editor. One of Hale's most famous writtings is the children's favorite, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Hale championed the T-Giving idea in 1863' to Lincoln who was the first to set the day as a national holiday. In the grips of the civil war, Lincoln, Hale and others saw the day as a special day for family but also an attempt to connect in a nationalist kinda sense to the nations roots in a time of vast divide. It would also stand to reason that Plymouth was choosen over Virginia for obvious reasons and therefore the holiday was forever linked to the Plymouth colony.

Over time and when in national crisis such as wartime, the holiday seems to re-emerge moreso than in times of quiet and peace but none the less the holiday does seem to have a universal love across societal lines. This however came into being more in the latter half of the 20th century and continues. Sarah Hale is an interesting women to say the least and if you love the holiday, don't thank a pilgrim as this practice was fairly common among European protestant Christians and therefore they wouldn't understand something so special that to them seemed downright natural and commonplace. Instead, thank Sarah Hale because without her efforts, the day may have never come to pass in the sense we celebrate it today.

http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html
 

SimpleUPSer

Active Member
The Turkeys are being passed out next week (in our district anyway).

How many Turkeys are donated in your districts? We seem to have a lot that we just end up running over to local charities.

Does anyone know how many turkeys UPS gives out total? That number must be pretty high.
 
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