Remember Gratitude!

I realize that I do a fair amount of moaning and bellyaching about various aspects of life and things that are not turning out as planned... and about a world that seems to have come off the rails in so many ways.

I'm not pretending to give myself a "free pass" here, but it is very easy — and tempting — to get swept up in the swirling cloud of fear and negativity purveyed by the media and talking heads on YouTube. After all, we're served a perpetual soup of disaster after disaster, right?

Which is why — at least from my perspective — I think it is really important to periodically just stop and instead reflect on everything I have to be grateful for, instead.

I'm not talking about some woo-woo New Age Kumbaya gratitude chant, but an actual tangible inventory of the good things we have.

Sure, life might suck a fair amount of the time, but it surely doesn't suck all the time! There are actually plenty of things to be grateful for... quite a few of which we are prone to taking for granted.

For example, our friendships.

2-3 times a week I head out to visit an elderly friend of ours who lives nearby. He has limited mobility, so he needs help with various things, and I sometimes run errands for him.

I have come to increasingly view these times not so much as acts of service as an opportunity to spend time with a friend who has lived a fascinating life. And I am really grateful for that friendship.

In a quite different way, I am often complaining about the ridiculous cost of healthcare and the ridiculous maze it is to navigate insurance and what is covered and what is not. Given that, I am also really grateful for my — relatively speaking — quite good health... meaning that I actually have to interface with that whole circus considerably less than most of my peers. What a blessing!

Not related, I am also really grateful for our cats who provide a sort of "innocent counterpoint" in an often messed up world. I can sit and watch them just enjoy the simplest of things, like playing in a cardboard box and sleeping in the sun, warming their bellies. They remind me that simple things matter, and often are more important than the chaos of the world.

Just a few hours ago, I found myself mesmerized by yet another spectacular sunset and I felt really grateful for the beauty of nature... and the "shows" nature puts on so often, and without ever charging admission.

And while I may complain about our constant financial troubles and the seemingly endless challenges of self-employment, I shall always be immensely grateful that I have the ability to work at home and not be at the mercy of of some soulless company that requires me to put in 60 stress-laden hours a week, doing something that has little meaning and serves even less purpose.

And I am grateful that I'm able to write these words from the comfort of a warm home... unlike the poor lady with her little dog, standing on the corner by the supermarket this afternoon, holding up a cardboard sign that read "Homeless and hungry, anything helps! God Bless!"

What kind of world is this, that we have people of retirement age, sleeping on benches in public because they have no other option? I have been in her shoes, and I am grateful not to be!

I heard something poignant the other day... relating to the way we humans so often get wrapped up in all the things we don't have and really want:

"Consider that many of the things around you that you are calling old and boring, and in need of being replaced with something new... were once things you really wanted to GET because they would make your life so much better!"

Wise words, indeed!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

Comments, feedback and other engagement is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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