Daily Cascade

On Thankfulness

Prompt:
What are you thankful for this week?
Write about this in your Blog entry today.

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Not only for this week but for always, I'm thankful for everything that was given to me and all that existed already for my use. Life, probably, is never perfect for everyone, but it is warm, meaningful, and full, if we care to view it positively.

This kind of viewing, therefore, has to do with perspective. I try not to see what is amiss, but I pay attention to what is here at the present moment. This stance eases facing my difficult times. It doesn't mean I try not to experience sorrow or disappointment. Quite the contrary. I do feel deeply my hurts and sorrows. Yet, even in my darkest times, I had supportive sons, friends, some family members, and my own reasoning. I am so thankful for all those people and my own thinking and faith in the higher power. All these gave me strength to live through very difficult days.

So, a few years ago, sometime after my husband passed away, I started keeping a thankfulness journal, in which I write longhand, every evening. I've already filled several notebooks, not large ones but 4x6 inches-sized small ones, and I've made sure I wrote my thanks in those each evening, even if some pages end up as somewhat similar copies of one another. This helps me to keep my sanity and look at life with grateful eyes.

After all, even right now, as I write this, I can hear a bird crowing, my neighbor's dog barking, and the sounds of the garbage collecting trucks, but instead of taking such sounds as distracting noises, I appreciate them as the sounds of a vibrant life.

So I guess, thankfulness is a strong force to connect me to life. And I am also thankful for my thankfulness, too, for it has shifted my attention away from what is missing and toward what is present.


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