Live Grateful
“It is
not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes
us happy, every moment is a gift. There is no certainty that you will
have another moment, with all the opportunities that it contains. The
gift within every gift is the opportunity it offers us. Most often it
is the opportunity to enjoy it, but sometimes a difficult gift is
given to us and that can be an opportunity to rise to the challenge.”
Brother
David Steindl-Rast
My friend goes home from
the hospital today. He has been poisoned by chemo, his bone marrow
killed, so that it can grow back and produce healthy blood cells. His
hair, such as it was, has fallen out. He has trouble swallowing food,
and can't taste what he does eat. His short term memory has been
kicked in the head, and he has trouble latching onto words he wants
to say. His gut seems to no longer belong to him, but to have an evil
mind of its own. And, as my grandmother would say, “He's as weak as
puppy water.” All this in the hope of remission from Multiple
Myeloma. Every hour of the last two weeks has been...well, agony of
one sort or another. As you might imagine, right now he's not feeling
the love and gratitude of which the good Brother Steindl-Rast speaks.
However, if he's given another decade to watch his grandchildren grow
up, I think he will.
It's hard to feel
grateful in our moments of challenge—especially when we're tossing
our cookies as he is. It takes a little time to let things settle and
then realize you've met that challenge, and can now to look forward
to more enjoyable days. It's unrealistic to think that one can kick
up ones heels in the midst of something as tortuous as cancer
treatment. Gratitude reveals itself on the back-side of that
particular mountain. That's when we realize we've been given more
valuable time to live, and, perhaps, to live differently than before.
Many people who survive such an ordeal know in their bones that, from
now on, everything will be different. They will never be the same.
Life itself takes on more significance. It feels far more precious
than before, and they don't want to waste a moment of it.
Here's what I've learned
by watching this friend, and several others, go through the monstrous
ordeal of medical treatment for cancer: Don't wait for such a
difficult challenge to live life as though it is a treasured gift.
Instead, live every day in your own skin, standing on your own feet,
and listening to the voice within that instructs you as to what is
truly important and what is not. Live right now with love and
gratitude in your heart, because that is the foundation of a happy
life. Don't take life for granted—there is no certainty that you, or I,
will have another moment. Seize the opportunities of this day!
In the Spirit,
Jane
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