Just before you get your hands dirty and plunge into your bins to find buried treasure, please read on. Its really not necessary for you to go to those lengths to find the greatest gift that we all have available to ourselves right now, regardless of our situations or circumstances. No matter where you are in your life at this moment, there is something you can do which will help you find endless gifts in your particular life’s ‘garbage’ every minute of every day.
Let me explain. This morning (I write my blogs at the end of the previous day, so in this case Monday), I woke early to get to the gym by 8am. There was little traffic, a warm breeze and I was excited to be up and out and ready to exercise so early. As I was driving along listening to Phil Collins (without wanting to slit my wrists – see previous blog!), I had a strange feeling that I was pretty sure was not indigestion.
It was definitely a good feeling. One that made me want smile and yet touched me deeply. The only name I could find for it was simply Gratitude. Just in that moment, I realized how grateful I was for all that I have and everything that I am. My body, my health, my smile, my sleeping son in his ‘uni’ house in Harrow, my effervescent daughter on her way to work, the silly card I was sending to my mum to cheer her up and the fact that my dad, though quite ill, was up and getting dressed to enjoy another day. What I have learned is that no matter what anyone takes away from you, materially, emotionally or physically, one thing that cannot be taken is the way you respond to your lot in your life. Now, this may sound a bit ‘Polyanna-ish’, but the truth is that you can either be a bundle of grievances for what you haven’t got or a body full of gratefulness for what you have got. So in the interests of, well, just because its interesting really, I tried out the ‘grateful test’ later in the day when ‘sleeping son’ awoke to take me ‘lap top’ shopping and to change my mobile (I have an old Nokia brick which apparently is total embarrassment) and we both had fun in the Disney shop and remembered how I used to take him there after school. I bought him a ‘Woody’ (he has Buzz Lightyear) as one of his gifts for his 21st Birthday this week, (no comments please, this is my son we are talking about!) and was struck by the gorgeousness of this boy who had only been 5 when I divorced but who had now grown into a man of courage and creativity and acute sensitivity. Once again I felt that same feeling of gratefulness that not only had he survived the ‘suitcase kid’ phase of life that ‘divorced kids’ go through, but he had come out the other end, I believe, even stronger, wiser and far more compassionate. If that’s not a ‘gift in the garbage’, I don’t know what is.
For all of us, there are times when life hits you from behind, and in front (and from the side) and sometimes, just sometimes, it all gets a bit much. That is the best moment, if you can, to take a deep breath and just remind yourself of what you are really grateful for and let the rest of the stuff lose its meaning, because, honestly - most of it will not matter at all in 1 year’s time or probably, even one week’s time. Gratitude is really quite underrated as a virtue and yet it’s probably the one most accessible to any of us. Even Mr. Collin’s knows that and because so often music has all the answers, I’ll let him have the last word on this one.
“Oh think twice, its just another day for you and me in paradise”.
Till tomorrow,
Love Francine
