Which one are you?
She was more grateful for less than anyone I know.
I met her in her run-down home about a year before she moved into the nursing home. As the founding president of a local Habitat for Humanity chapter, we worked on her house. When I visited her in her home and later in the nursing home, she impressed me.
With very little that I could see to be thankful for, gratitude coursed through her being. Bad health, strained breathing, no money, few family members around. And yet…and yet, she beamed with life and encouragement. Humor and grace spilled easily from her lips, while her wide, skuinty-eyed smile coaxed out the best in me.
She was less grateful for more than anyone I know.
Of course, I have met others who embody this second statement. I didn’t like being around her. She complained about everything she had, as if it were all defective and not enough. Whining, doubting, complaining. Blah. I tried not to cross paths with her again.
The opposite can also be true. You can have much and be thankful, and you can have little and be a grouch.
And the choice is yours. It really is. You get to decide. You may have to work hard to change your mind and your words and your heart. But, you do get to choose, no matter what your life circumstances may be.
Which one are you?
Worth Repeating
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
-William Arthur Ward
