Gratitude is good
Published 8:29 pm Thursday, October 15, 2026
Joy is a priceless commodity.
As a Gen Xer, I came of age during the decades of excess. Gordon Gekko stood on the big screen in Wall Street and famously declared that greed was good, and plenty of impressionable young people bought into the consumerism being sold right alongside it. Bigger was better. More was better. Success had a logo, a price tag, and preferably a luxury vehicle parked in the driveway.
Fast-forward nearly 40 years, and it has taken me almost that long to deprogram. Wisdom comes with age, or so they say. And if this past weekend is any indication of where true value can be found, I would say it is in finding joy, happiness, and gratitude in the people and moments that make up our lives.
My middle son got married on Saturday. The Shenandoah Valley did not disappoint. We were gifted one of those perfect early-autumn days when the sky, the temperature, and the scenery all seemed to come together just right.
There have been a handful of truly perfect days in my life. I mean days I can look back on without finding a flaw. Not a thing I would change. Most of them, in retrospect, have revolved around my children. This weekend was no exception.
Beginning Friday and casting a joyful glow across the entire weekend, I had all four of my children together. I had my niece, extended family, and the people I have chosen to love gathered around me. There is no material possession I own, or could ever own, that would be worth more to me than those few days.
I have searched for the words to describe what it feels like to witness and participate in that much joy, and I keep coming up short. So, I will simply say this: It was a good day. One of the really good ones. The kind you tuck away somewhere deep inside yourself because you already know that someday you will want to return to it.
Maybe that is the lesson age has finally managed to teach me. Real joy cannot be found in a bank account. Happiness does not come standard with a particular brand of vehicle. And gratitude is not something I can pick off a shelf at TJ Maxx, although heaven knows I have given them plenty of opportunities to sell it to me.
The real stuff lives inside us and between us. It is found in our people. It does not matter whether those people are connected to us by blood or whether they are the family we have gathered along the way. Relationships are where we practice gratitude. They are where we experience belonging, love and real happiness.
The year 2026 has taught me a great deal about value. Things are eventually left behind. Job titles disappear from email signatures. Possessions break, become outdated, or end up in a yard sale where someone offers you three dollars for something you once absolutely had to have. But relationships endure. Experiences remain. And presence matters.
Being fully present with another human being may be the greatest gift we have to give and the most precious one we will ever receive.
For most of my life, I thought wealth was something you accumulated. I am beginning to understand that maybe wealth is something you experience.
It is your children laughing together. It is watching your son look at the woman he loves on their wedding day. It is looking around a room filled with people you love and realizing, for one perfect moment, that everyone you need is right there.
That is wealth. That is joy. And you cannot put a price tag on either one.
Don’t worry. I won’t stay sappy for long. I’ll probably be back to my sarcastic Gen X self by next week. But today, I’m going to sit here a little longer and bask in the afterglow of one very good day.
Laura (Wright) Jones is a former West Plains resident and a writer now living in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley with her husband Jeff and their two Morkies, Jonesy and Mookie.
