9/28: GRATITUDE
This past week I had the opportunity to volunteer some of my time at a couple events. On Friday, I attended a color run at the elementary school our kids went to, to provide warm up drills for the kids before the run. It was a great feeling to go back to where our kids spent 6 years and talk to many of the teachers that I still knew. Then, on Sunday, Colleen and Madeline W joined my wife and I at our churches bi-annual visit to Crossroads Kitchen in Detroit to make meals for the needy. In both instances, it reinforced the need for me to focus more on the things that I should be eternally grateful for, and less on the things that cause me anxiety.
I’ve seen a couple articles on-line that said studies have been done that show it’s impossible for people to be both anxious and grateful at the same time. So, the key to ridding yourself of your anxieties is to really focus on the things you are grateful for. Don’t just think about them, say them out loud. Compared to the vast majority of people in this world, it’s almost embarrassing that I should complain about anything.
On Friday at the color run, there were at least a dozen special needs children that were essentially non-verbal and required an individual teacher per child to manage them. I can’t imagine the struggles that they and their families go through every single day, and how hard it must be for the counselors to have the patience needed to work with kids every single day. At the soup kitchen, we serve people that are at the bottom of the economic ladder who might only get that single meal on that day. I often wonder what circumstances led them to where they are, and what dreams they had as a child that have probably long since passed them by. Beyond that, when we look at the world as a whole and the wars that are raging and the death and destruction that we see on the news every single day, why is it that we are so lucky to be in a place of relative peace with plenty of clean food and water? With that, it’s time for me to be grateful, and hopefully you follow suit.
Lord, I am grateful for the person you made me. I am grateful for having a healthy body and mind. I am grateful for the family that You placed me in when I was born, and that all my siblings and both parents are still alive and healthy. I am grateful for my wife, and I am grateful that we were not able to have our own biological children so we could adopt the wonderful children that we did. I am grateful that our children are healthy and contributing to society. I am grateful for all the wonderful pets that we have been entrusted with over the years. I am grateful that I live in a place that has always been free from war. I am grateful to have access to healthy food and clean drinking water. I am grateful for all the jobs I have had that have provided for my family. I am grateful for the terrible back pain that I have had to endure for most of my life because of where it has ultimately led me. I am grateful for the roof over my head and the vehicles in my driveway. I am grateful for the income that has allowed me travel and see much of this country and other parts of the world. I am grateful for my former business partner, without who I would most likely not have ever started my own business. I am grateful for all the people that have walked into the doors of Gracie Barra Northville that have entrusted their education and well being with us. I am grateful for all the students I have met in the gym that I now call friends. But most of all God, I am eternally grateful that you put people in my life that ultimately led me to You.
I know that everything is a process, and one week of being grateful, and one newsletter post is not going to change me overnight, but it is a step in the right direction. If you are struggling with where you are in life, take 10 minutes out of your day, maybe in the morning, maybe in the shower, maybe in the car ride to work, and start saying out loud what you are grateful for. Then, let me know how it’s changed you!
