“If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.”— Mister Eckhart
Past few weeks have been not easy on my peace loving soul, with the news of Syrians refugees fleeing for a safe haven, terrorist attacks on airplanes, suicide bombings in Paris, and the very recent earthquake tremors in Phoenix that shook me in my sleep.
Therefore, this morning when I woke up, I was grateful for the peace that surrounds me and my loved ones. I have a new found appreciation and awareness for being ‘me’, placed in ‘this’ environment, for I could have been the Syrian mother trying to escape the war with my kids or watching soccer in the Stade de France stadium or flying in the Russian airliner that got shot down.
For that reason, I owe a ‘thank you’ to the divine energy that is looking over us. Its not that I do not pray for the world, but as an energy nucleus I seek the wellbeing of the people in my immediate orbit first, and then I extend my prayers to the world and beyond.
While I am always grateful for being blessed with the comfort of basic needs such as food,water, shelter, family and friends; my ability to find the good in daily life is majorly influenced by the external stimuli and my wisdom with age and experience. So the things that I take for granted today, might seem as a blessing tomorrow. I learnt this sweet bitter truth through my life experiences in my early years.
In those years, I do not remember giving a lot of thought to being thankful. I was blessed with a very comfortable family life, with parents who practiced kindness and benevolence in their every day living, so I learnt to share and give in my early years. But there were things that I felt entitled to such as having parents who cared for me, siblings to share my life with, going to a good school,being raised in a nice neighborhood, friends to play hopscotch with, pet dog to cuddle and so on. I had inherited these blessings just by virtue of being born in this family, and I took it for granted, until one dark day my Dad passed away. It was as if my life was written in sequels; Part-1 was with him in my life- happy and carefree, while Part-2 after his demise-sad and depressing. I felt powerless to the doings of destiny, and the only comfort I could find was in being thankful for what I had, which was my mom and my siblings to still call my own. Being grateful is what helped me stay strong, positive and work hard to get through the hard times!
With the lesson learnt, I try to fill my soul with constant appreciation of the goodness in and around me. So, today I am thankful for the peace; while yesterday for being surrounded by my family and friends; and the day before for the last piece of chocolate cake in the refrigerator that no one noticed:-).
For the same reason, I try to inculcate positivity in my kids, as together we count all the good things that happened for the day, right before going to bed.
With this positive thought, I wish you all a happy and peaceful Thanksgiving, and invite you to share the blessings in your life.
If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you would’t want.— Unknown
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Photo credit: symphony of love / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA
An attitude of gratitude
