Gratitude is such an endearing word that connotes thankfulness or appreciation for someone’s graciousness and benevolence. As a person we always strive to be self-sufficient and independent of outside help because we want to prove that we are responsible enough and therefore very much capable for taking care of our own needs. We are proud of a distinct personality that we are seeing of ourselves, as a free and independent entity from outside attention and care. This may even be the reason why most adolescents who are barely 18 years of age, leave home and parents to seek a life by his or her own.
It’s a fact of life:
“Life as they say is what we make it”, this is exactly what we all want follow. Making a life, living our own life that is free or carefree, anyway we are all entitled to whatever we want to do with our own life. No matter how headstrong or stubborn we may be, there is always a certain moment in our life, that in one way or another, we got overwhelmed with challenges. With slumped shoulders we want to fight on and do our best to overcome anything that stands in our way, but we realized that we are spent, all used up and with no more energy to go on. Then frustration sets in and hunger, sickness and problems penned us down with no immediate hope on sight. This is the usual facts that most of us learn in life. Only a very few percentage of us were lucky enough to escape it but rather most of us has his/her share of pitfalls, stumbles and falls before we can learn enough to be able to survive and live on.
As we live, there is always hope:
We will learn out of experience that life is not that unpleasant or harsh after all. That, for all the problems we encounter, though how gloomy life may already seem to be, we just keep holding our head up and somehow get a glimpse of the light of hope ahead. I am a believer of the saying that “no man is an island, no one stands alone”. Removing the pride barriers from our heart, we grab that extended helping hand offered to us and we got saved and become able to stand and be proud again. We are back on our feet in the road once more and continue with the daily stride and struggles until we succeed. One success after another and so on, for experience has molded us into a reliable fighting machine that is intelligent enough to evade all the pitfalls and stumbling blocks and become empowered to move on towards that bright future that we are setting your eyes on. This is supposed be our very reason why we give gratitude every day.
Gratitude:
Somehow as we try to look back, we see the steep, craggy hill from where we have been and then recall that somewhere in that steepness, we once lost hope of being able to climb up some more. Unexpectedly, a helping hand is offered to us and we grabbed it and that had made us climb the whole stretch until we reached the top. That my friend is a point of gratitude that needs to be expressed but to whom? After all the struggles we got mixed up and we forget the face and more so forget the name, or we may actually have forgotten to ask, much worst we didn’t even look who that was. However, gratitude is not something that can just be hidden under the pillow because in every instance as long as we live we still meet people. Persons who may stand aside just to let you pass, or one who just offered a nice smile or anyone who could remind you of a favor and many other instances where a nice return smile or a short thank you is a justified gesture of gratitude. We will learn that gratitude does not gratify the giver alone but each time we express appreciation and say thank you, a tinge of happiness also pinches our heart. To me this is the very reason why we give gratitude every day.
Our daily gratitude:
ihe pinnacle of our realization in life is our understanding how we managed to keep on living. It is a fallacy to argue that a person lives because he eats or that he breathed by himself because the truth is that every living person has in one way or another, contributed something that allows others to go on living. It is not hard to find since they are all around us. There people devoted to farming, to manufacturing, public services, protection and security, mass media, to education, to banking, health services, and so on and so forth. All these life essentials are toiled upon, manufactured and produced for all of us and these are the surest reasons why we give gratitude every day. No way any one among us can claim right now, that he can do all those things in order to go on living. I am reminded of an unmarried uncle, God bless his soul, who never got married because he does not want to be victimized with the problems of married life. In his younger days, he used to be well off all by himself until his retirement days. He Lives upon on his monthly pension, staying in his own flat all by himself. However, when he became too old to attend to his needs, being alone and sick he was forced to live with relatives. Awkwardly he swallowed his high principles of self-sufficiency and finally admitted his helplessness and that he really needs someone else to help him out.
To quote another saying that states; “Gratitude and being thankful makes a giver to even give some more”. It sounded a little biblical but I like the message. I felt it too each time I give or do some acts of charity and I particularly like those who expresses appreciation and thanks that even before I left the place, I already contemplate of another time to do the same activity once again. This is how I view my life. I did not will to have triumphed over the millions of sperms cells that qualified me into this life. All of us born to this world are already champions at birth and if there is nobody that you know whom to thank for that, then this again is a very good reason why you should give gratitude each day and probably for all the days until we depart from this world.
Whatever your reason may be, you should always give gratitude. Even for the small things. Giving gratitude will give you that positive charge that you need and will fill an emptiness inside your spirit. Everyone has something to be thankful for.