GRATITUDE 11.21.08

Another week has come and gone, another week in which my blog has sat here, mostly neglected. Another week has come and gone, another week in which I've thought a great deal about the wonderful blessings and reasons for gratitude in my life.

I'm grateful for all the simple things in my life. This week, for example, a brief email from my aunt with whom I am estranged, who sent me a message informing me of the birth of her grandson. The email brought a smile to my face-for no other reason than the simple fact that she remembered to send me a message. That simple gesture seemed like a huge deal to me, especially given our relationship. I'm grateful that I found my cousin and his wife on facebook this week, and that we have been in touch. I had lunch with a friend today, just the two of us, visiting and sharing the goings on in our lives.

I'm always grateful for the people in my life. I have a wide circle of people who care for me. For someone who has spent the vast majority of his life feeling alone, it is a great feeling to know that I do have friends who are there for me in spite of the fact that sometimes I'm not the friend that I should be to them. I've always thought the phrase "you can never have too many friends" was hokey. Yet, as I am getting older, I'm finding that having an extended "family" of friends is not a bad thing. We are naturally going to be closer to some friends than others, but friends add so much to our lives, no matter the role they play in our lives.

I'm grateful for quiet, reflective moments in the midst of the chaos of life, for music that makes me smile, for the baths taken by candlelight, for arms that reach to embrace me, to massage me, for love that flows so freely. I'm grateful for the beauty that surrounds me and for blessings all too easily taken for granted. Do any of us truly pause to consider the miracle of each new day? I know I don't, until something tragic comes along to remind me of how fragile life truly is. I'm grateful that even though I waste more time in a day than I care to admit, that I am continually blessed with more days, more moments.

I'm grateful that I woke up this morning in a warm bed, in a warm house and had a happy warm cat sleeping beside me. I took a warm shower and put on warm clothes and headed to a job I'm blessed to have and that added money to my bank account. I'm reminded that so many people in this city, state, country and even around the world are not so blessed. I'm conscious that, like so many others, I'm just a paycheck away from having to rely on the kindness of friends and strangers. That's such a humbling thought, yet I know that most of us don't pause to give that one moment's consideration.

Here's my confession: I'm blessed with an overabundance of love, friends and "things" in my life. As I spend time pondering the many things in my life, I find peace and comfort in knowing that life still goes on. From the rising of the sun to its setting, I am rich. I'm rich in blessings, rich in relationships, rich in who I am. I never want my gratitude to be trite or contrived. It is my hope that my gratitude flows from a place deep within, and is filled with honesty and sincerity most genuine emotions I can possibly express. It is always my hope, my prayer, that as I count my many blessings, that you, also, will pause for a moment to remember the good (and even the bad) in your life-for all we experience has the ability touch us, to move us, to humble us. Even on our worst day, it may be hard to see, but there is a glimmer of goodness to be found there on the surface. May you always be inspired to live a life of gratitude, and may your days be richly blessed.