A few weeks back, I wrote a couple of posts on gratitude. I started with a tongue in cheek post, but for a few reasons felt obliged to post a more serious one. Despite the fact that I think it was fairly well written, and I certainly meant what I said … it seems I am also not paying attention to my own words. So I am revisiting the idea, because I need to, and because yesterday was “G” day in the A to Z challenge.
I should have written this yesterday, but I was too busy not being grateful. 🙂
I frequently put myself on hold to help others out. Sometimes I do it so well that I forget how to answer my personal phone again. I have to remind myself to occasionally take care of me. The issue is, that in recent years, it seems that every time I try to do something for ME; something that will push me forward again, I run smack into a wall. This can be frustrating as hell (as one might imagine) and often leaves me feeling bitter about things. For a while I might slip into “poor me I never get what I want” mode, but eventually (hopefully quickly but not always), I remember my place and perspective returns.
Enter gratitude.
The truth of the matter is despite the fact that at the moment my life is not one to write movies (or even cartoons) about, that is just for the moment. Even if it is a long-lasting moment. In my last gratitude post, I mentioned that we need to relearn to be grateful just for the sake of being grateful. And I believe this. But even so, I actually have much to be grateful for.
First and foremost, I am still alive. There were a couple of events in my life that could have altered this simple fact, yet here I am. Beyond that, in my brief visit on this planet so far, I have managed to experience much more of life than many twice my age have even come close to imagining. I have had the great fortune of seeing life in all its glory, precisely because I have also seen it at its darkest.
I have often heard people say that life sucks. Or that life is unfair. Not true. Life is both wonderful and terrible; it is filled with light and shadow, beauty and ugliness. Life is the essence of fairness. The only thing that sucks or is unfair about it is how we choose to live it.
No matter how bleak a specific moment may seem, the simple fact is we are alive to experience it. As long as we are alive, there is always another moment coming, and it could very well be a wonderful one if we allow it to be. Life is not unfair. Life does not suck. Life just is. Be grateful for that one fact. And bleak will eventually be washed away.