Be Grateful
There is so many things, for which we all can be grateful, if for nothing else, we can start, with the realization, that we’re - by some miracle - alive, and conscious. Where is life and consciousness, there is always potential, of happiness (and even enlightenment), so we can be grateful, even if only for that potential.
In dark times of my life, I was grateful for light days and short periods of happiness; when things were much better, I slowly forgot to be grateful. Instead of that, I became greedy.
We always think, how we need more, but what is more good for, if we can’t notice what we have now? We’ll get more, but, in that very moment, we’ll again desire more, and again, we won’t notice what we have in this moment. And so the life will pass, in need for more. That’s a life of a poor man.
Life of a rich man, on other hand, is life of grateful and aware person. When we know what we have, and we’re grateful for that - we don’t need more, we may still follow our dreams, but one is to follow the dream, and walking on the path of life, and another is desire of something to happen, and trying to force our life into particular direction. One is death thirst, another is refreshing sip from the never ending string of life.
Money, or any material thing, can’t make you rich, - they never could, and never will. And among the poorest persons in this world, seems to be the riches, and among the riches, are the poorest.
Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.
—Doris Day
To be grateful for most regular things, is sometimes hard — only when we lost them, we realize we had them, and just how much they were worth. Health, inner and outer peace, hope and faith, etc… We’re so unaware of those things, while we have them.
If we’d just start thinking, for how many things, we can be so grateful - we could think for a whole month. But I’m not saying, that we must start making a list, of all the things for which we’re grateful, I’m just saying - we should recognize some of them, since after recognition, the inspiration will came - above all, the inspiration for life itself.
It’s sad, that we need to be inspired for life; I believe, that depression and many other mental disorders, and even many of the global problems, are (more or less) the consequence of the uninspired life. I think many people lack the sense and reason (of life), - they’re feeling like a machine, or actually, as a small piece of a big and horrible machine.
In gratefulness for the simple and small things, we can find a lot of inspiration for our life. The great inspiration, to do something with life, can arise. One can start seeing, before unseen possibilities. Of course, we shouldn’t mix, being grateful, with being attached. While attachment may imprison us, gratefulness, and appreciation of the current moment, will liberate us.
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.
—Buddha
