Thankfulness

I've learned one very important lesson in my life and that is to be thankful. A thankful heart can never be depressed. Noticing our blessings becomes easier as we practice it every day. When we realize just how many there are, they begin to shine with a light so bright that they remove all of the cobwebs of grief and self-pity.

I spent too much time in that dank, dark pit of misery, self-loathing and sadness. I took pills, I was angry and miserable. Finally, I realized the pills weren't helping and I also started looking outward at the people that loved me and had stuck by me through my "dark" time. That was when the first tiny ray of thankfulness began to glow.

I learned to fan it and nurture it and it soon blazed. Sometimes it still threatens to go out, but I stop what I'm doing and I ponder again all of the things that I still have to be thankful for and once again I am happy and living in the sunshine of a thankful heart.

Depression, grief, and their darker expressions are a form of selfishness. When we stop putting ourselves as the center of our universe, we begin to grow. I believe in God. I do not believe that He is going to answer every prayer or stop every sadness, but He has given us the light and the joy in everything around us. There is love and happiness in everything that is of God. He is with us through every moment.

Fan that nugget of thankfulness and you will begin to see all that there is to be thankful for even in your darkest hour. I've lost a brother that was way too young and vibrant to die and a father that was not too young, but still very much needed and loved. I've moved on from those terrible moments and I've realized those moments are part of life.

This is not our natural place to be. I think each of us is aware on some level that there is more to us than our physical bodies and the pain and pleasure they can induce. Love/hate, pain/pleasure are so closely related in these bodies. I believe they are merely an image, a poor reflection of the soul's ability to experience our existence and state of being as we were meant to experience it.

We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Death is not our enemy. It is us being born into an existence that is ultimately more natural for us. I know we exist beyond this physical life. I have seen and experienced things that are not of this physical world.

I miss my brother, my father, but I will be reunited with them again. I feel distress when I see others suffering from whatever cause and I know there are times when thankfulness can be the furthest thing from our minds and hearts. But true healing only comes when we can once again reach a thankful state of mind.

We have to learn that grief and sadness are okay, but depression and misery are not. We can miss people, places, things, but we cannot allow that missing to take over our every thought and action. There is nothing stronger than our minds and wills and we are own best healer, once we learn and grasp the reality of the power God has given us.

I realize that there are unspeakable horrors that some people endure. I also know that whatever we have to face and endure in this physical existence will pass and we will become the being that we are meant to be, but the road to that point can be long and painful. What has worked for me and I hope it works for my readers is to focus on one moment at a time. Let the past go, it is over. Learn to live in the present, learn to be thankful for the moment and whatever thing of beauty and peace that is with you in that moment. A baby's laugh, a butterfly that lingers over a flower, a pet that waits expectantly for your next touch, a ray of sun peeking through a darkened sky, whatever tiny speck you can grasp in that moment, let it be the stepping stone to recognizing more and more things to be thankful for. They are there even in our darkest hours.

This quote says it all and I hope it helps to bring you peace and thankfulness too...

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” 
― Henry Ward Beecher

I Remembered Something Important Today.

I've found myself a little bit perturbed with God lately. I pray and I pray and it seems I don't get answers. My Dad died a year and half ago, my mom is now sick with cancer. I asked God, "Why?" I've asked God to cure her to cure my Dad and I didn't get the answers that I wanted.

Today, I was singing as I often do when I'm by myself. I don't want to subject anyone else to my noise, but I love to sing. Anyway, I was singing bits and pieces of several songs. I like to do that too. I jump from song to song singing my favorite bits! I stumbled upon one that used to be my favorite, You'll Never Walk Alone. No, I'm not that old, but I did take voice lessons once upon a time and that was in my repertoire!

As I was mindlessly singing away. I stopped suddenly as I realized the words I was saying and it hit me. I was expecting the wrong thing from God. He never promised to fix things or answer all my prayers just the way I wanted. He doesn't promise to heal every illness or stop every heart ache, He only promises to be there with us to help us through them.

I know this, but I forgot it somewhere through all the terrible heart ache of watching my Dad die and now facing my mother going through cancer too. I looked back through my memories of my Dad's illness and I realized that God did answer my prayers. My Dad did not suffer as so many do with the type of cancer he had. He suffered more than I wanted him too, but so many little nuggets of blessings were present through that trying time.

My mother has already had many blessing and answers to my prayers. Her cancer was contained. She received good news for the illness she has. We are very blessed. I continue to pray that she will not suffer and that her continued treatment goes as well as the doctor predicts. And above all, I thank God for His blessings, His answers to my prayers and for helping me to see that He is there with me and my family. I have to trust, to believe and to be conscious of His presence and stop being so determined to have things my way.

"Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain and you'll never walk alone."