by: C S Lewis
http://www.sweetlyyou.com
©
2009
We all have bad days; you know the kind. You just
feel like everything is going wrong. I think we have all found ourselves thinking,
"I am just ready for this bad day to be over." Well, I found myself
thinking that very thought the other day. Luckily, that train of thought ended
fairly early when I checked my e-mails. When I got to an e-mail a dear friend
of mine sent me, my evaluation of the day and my outlook on life changed. This
e-mail contained a link to an online video about a young man, my age, who was
born without arms or legs.
Nick Vujicic lives "A Life
Without Limbs," as he refers to it. Practically anything you or I could do
with our arms or legs, Nick can do with a little, frail, chicken-leg-looking body
part that comes out of his hip. It is not a leg, it literally looks like a chicken
leg, short and kind of wiry. He uses that small body part to do things like flip
a phone up from the ground to his ear or kick a ball. It's amazing. Needless to
say, after I watched this video I had to sit back and ask myself if my life is
really all that bad. There is no way I could go about my daily tasks in the same
way Nick does. If I were in his shoes, I cannot even say I could maintain a positive
outlook on life, but he manages to. And do you know something? That gives me strength
to be grateful for every moment of every day and it gives me more incentive to
give thanks for all that I have.
The most important pre-step
to expressing our gratitude is to actually acknowledge small and large blessings
in our life. The big blessings and miracles seem pretty easy to spot; they could
be the car crash that happened right before your eyes that you barely missed or
the fact that the test results for a particular disease came back negative. It's
the small blessings I sometimes have a hard time recognizing. Some examples of
little blessings in my life are when I get an unexpected letter in the mail or
phone call from a friend. I think anything that brings a smile to our face; knowledge
to our mind, or talents to our hands is something to be grateful for. Be sure
to express thanks for these gifts, blessings, bits of wisdom you learn, or talents
you gain. I think there are multiple ways for us to express our gratitude, however
the two ways I believe are best include writing thank you notes and saying "thank
you."
Writing a thank you note takes approximately
five minutes. That is five minutes of your life that can literally help someone
else feel appreciated. Everyone loves to feel like his or her efforts were noticed.
It is a natural tendency for us to want to be valued. Writing a sincere letter
of gratitude can really help a person feel loved and special. Writing thank you
notes for small acts of kindness is absolutely a wonderful task as well. I know
when I was growing up there was a young boy who regularly opened the door for
me to walk into school. I barely knew his name but I still remember how he acted
like such a gentleman every day. I wish I could go back and give him a thank you
note to let him know I noticed his efforts and that he made me feel so special
each day.
I think if you stop and look around, you will
find that your life could really be a lot worse. Sure, maybe it could be better
too, but we are trying to focus on the positive here. I know I am grateful for
my health and strength, the strength I have physically and internally. I have
so much to be grateful for and I try to express it to those who deserve credit,
whether it is a friend, a stranger or a heavenly figure. Say "Thank you."
It just feels good for everyone involved.
