Show Gratitude

We live in a society where everything has a cost.

Furthermore, our lives turn around paying debts. You know what I’m talking about: food, rent, education, mortgage, clothes, furniture, credit cards, insurance, entertainment, medicines, vacations, etc. All these expenses are external, and we incur them in our quest for a better standard of living.

But, if you think about it, we don’t pay for many things from the beginning to the end of our lives. Some of these things are internal, and others are external. Do we pay for those expenses? No, we don’t. We take them for granted.

Let’s dive into it:

In the womb, we live rent-free for nine months. No mother has ever charged her child for that benefit and all it includes: shelter, warmth, food, protection, and most importantly, life.

And already in life we have our bodily functions: lungs working finely, eyes, ears, heart beating happily, muscles working in coordination, ears to hear, tongue to speak, eyes to see, teeth to chew, lips to kiss and smile, and so every organ in our body works for us for free, yet we never realize it until some organ fails, or we have an illness or an accident.

And then, we have the air we breathe. Do we pay for it? To whom?

Further to this we have nature that surrounds us: sunsets, sunrises, moonlights, moon views, rain, rainbows, and then, the sounds of nature, water running among the stones and it’s so soothing, and the sound of rain falling, the rivers, lakes and the seas, the tides, the beaches, and the mountains and the forests, and the savanna, and the prairies, and the singing of birds, and all the natural life you encounter, and the snow, and the snowed peaks, and the colours of nature, and the cascades, and the waterfalls, and the ponds and fish in the ponds, and other animals, and the butterflies, and the ladybugs,. Do we pay for that? Never.

And then, there are our thoughts, feelings, memories, and regrets. Do they have a price we pay, a cost?

Do we pay for that cost? To whom?

And then we die.

And in the last breathe, in that supreme, definitive second of life, do we have that spark of gratitude for everything we have enjoyed for free, things we never paid for?

Think of it.

Yet, the only way we pay for these gifts is to be grateful. And one way of showing your gratefulness is by helping others. Be kind to your neighbour. Be kind to nature.

And so, I would suggest that, from now on, if you have not done so until now, show your gratefulness toward your God, thank nature, or thank the universe.

Thank whoever you believe in, but express your gratitude at least once a day, and most importantly, the second you close your eyes to sleep, and the second you open your eyes to a new day.

Love to all.