Be Grateful

Today I went to see my landlady at the Ikeja High Court. Passing through, I saw many families huddled together, talking in groups with a lawyer or two in their midst. You could see the look of despair on their faces...a few were openly crying, some quietly doing so...

As I was about to enter my car, I saw this very young guy of about 25/26, being helped down a black maria. (Vehicles used to convey prisoners). He was handcuffed. Immediately he came down, some people waiting on the side tried to come near him, but the armed guards warned them off as the young guy was led into the courthouse followed by the people I suspect were his family members…all looking sad and disturbed.

I stood there speechless and watched them till they all disappeared into the court house…I dropped the can of soda I was drinking in a trash can, and sat in my car for a minute or so...thinking. The boy obviously was there fighting for his freedom, for his life…the life you and I take for granted.

I drove out of the courthouse a short time later, (of course promising never to willingly visit a place like that again…it’s too depressing) thinking this guy will trade places with me in a minute. I have life and the freedom to live that life the way I choose to, but lately I’ve been concentrating on things I don’t have, and looking for means to acquire them. But now looking at this guy and the other families, I looked up into the heavens and mouthed Thank you God!
All that I have and all that I am is enough for me...more than enough for me...from now on!

There’s so much you and I take for granted. So many things we loose sight of, caught up in the struggles of life. Things we regard as important when they really aren't. Things we cry about, worry about, fight about, lie about. People we are jealous of, try to run down. We make issues of unimportant stuff and waste time and energy on things that don't really matter instead of concentrating on things that matter...like life, love, happiness, peace of mind.

Here are the most important things to be grateful for ...

If you close your eyes at night and open it in the morning…be grateful. Because there are those who were not that lucky.
If you have love around you…be grateful
If you are healthy, mentally and physically…be grateful
Apart from this, everything else is secondary…

You know why? Because there’s nothing greater than being ALIVE, and nothing more beautiful than having LOVE around you. And nothing keeps you going as being healthy.

It doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor, educated or an illiterate, beautiful or not. Married or not, kids or not, famous or not. If you have everything you want, good for you. If you don't, SO WHAT? We make unimportant issues define our lives when it really shouldn't. It’s when we attach so much importance to this things that we are so lost, 'cos when we don’t have them, we seek, when we don’t find them, we cannot be happy and when we are not happy, how can we be grateful? Gratitude is the key to a happy life, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy because we will always want to have something else or something more. We will never be satisfied.

You find that most of us are jealous and envious of things and people irrelevant. We fight, we steal, we backbite, we are nasty to other people, we hate, we go after money, we make ourselves unhappy. If we look closer, we will find that some of our family members or friends we grew up with are gone. People we used to know are no longer here...someone we saw yesterday, is no more today. There are people fighting to live in hospital beds, there are dead bodies in mortuaries., there are people locked away in prison. But you and I are here writing, reading, exchanging views and we are not grateful for that ?

Be grateful for the smallest, simplest things. Be grateful that you can see this beautiful world, that you can hear your children's laughter, that you can speak with your loved ones, that you can understand when people speak to you. Be grateful and don't grief for the things you don't have but rejoice and be thankful for the things you have.

And remember there's someone somewhere who will trade places with you....in a second. So be grateful

If everything I've written here means nothing to you, then look at this man...



...and be grateful.

Even in the midst of something some of us will consider impossible to live with, he's still smiling. Because to him, it doesn't matter that half his body is gone...he's just grateful to be alive.

If you think you have a reason to be unhappy, think again!
You have absolutely no reason.

Be grateful! Always!
Cheers.