Gratitude

gratitude

/ˈɡratɪtjuːd/

noun

1. the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

"I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet"

-Gandhi

It’s very important to show gratitude, even for the little things in life. Gratitude can help us adopt a different outlook on things and develop a positive mindset. It’s so easy to want more and more and forget the things we already have. We’re always looking for the next moment or the next thing to happen and not living in the moment and appreciating what’s happening now.

I listened to a podcast on gratitude by Jay Shetty and he shared a story about how he went to India with his family and he visited the slums. He saw a girl scrambling through the bins and when she looked up, she smiled at him and he smiled back. Only then did he see that she didn’t have any hands, just arms. By the time he wanted to do something the car had driven off. When he got to the hotel, he overheard a couple complaining that there wasn’t enough choice at the buffet. All he was able to see what an abundance of choice. One thing that I got from the podcast was that it is very easy to miss the things that are happeneing right in front of us. 'The couple should be lucky that they're able to have such choice of food', I thought to myself. It wasn't fair that the small girl had to dig through the bins for food, even when she had no hands.

Being grateful for the things we have can help us change the way we see the world, especially during the pandemic that has been going on. I asked a friend what their thoughts on gratitude were and this is what they told me, “ Life is important. Especially in times of COVID-19, I think a lot of people have learnt to appreciate life more. Seeing the amount of people that have died due to the virus, I think has made others and myself value what they have even more and enabled them to cherish the people around them”.

I recently celebrated my birthday and was able to celebrate it with my friends. Like many others, my birthday is something that I'm always grateful for. To be able to grow older each year isn't something that I take for granted. I've heard of many people who passed away on their birthday and that's something that I always keep in mind.

Being with my friends, especially some that I hadn't seen in a while due to the pandemic, made me realise how thankful I am to have them in my life. I told them 'thank you so much for coming'- just one way of showing how grateful I was for them and also for my birthday.

Take a moment to cherish the people you love and the things that you have because there is someone who wishes to have what you do.