Being grateful for simple things came as a sharp reminder for me this morning. It’s been a challenging few months for several reasons. My son’s return to Zimbabwe with his family last year left many loose ends to be tied up. Most notably the field where we used to grow vegetables had to be worked and grass sown, the greenhouse must be used or dismantled and sold, equipment and furniture to sell. A cold wet spring has made fieldwork difficult. Mud everywhere.
Writing for this and my other business blog has suffered. Instead of constantly juggling schedules to find time to write my usual weekly, 600 to 1200 word posts, I will do some short ones with random thoughts and observations that I hope you will enjoy. This is one of them.
The list of things to be done has been growing to the point that I have been wondering how I would ever get on top of them. Yesterday I was feeling particularly frustrated. The weekly, 36 hour fast I started after supper on Monday probably didn’t help my happiness level too much either.
This morning I got up early and was out on the road for my walk before dawn. As I headed East on the side road I watched the sun come up behind our neighbour’s trees. I got the photo on the left just as it crept over the horizon.
It made a world of difference, the sunrise promised a sunny day, a big change from all the wet grey days we have had all Spring. I got me to think of being grateful for the fact that I was healthy and fit enough to get up at 5:30, get out on the road and walk.
To be grateful for living in the country where I can walk on gravel roads past fields and trees. Few cars to worry about, no traffic noise or exhaust fumes.
Being grateful that I can get gas, diesel and just about everything I need without having to pay exorbitant prices or find a black-market source as so many in Africa and elsewhere are forced to do.
It is reassuring to know that our currency and prices are relatively stable unlike in Zimbabwe where my son tells me inflation has climbed to 60%. So although I only earn a fraction of what I did for most of my life in Africa, I earn enough to live a quiet, comfortable life.
Yes, I do have much to be grateful for, my morning walks keep reminding me of that. I wrote about gratitude being one of the 5 steps to Thriving on Adversity in my book. I also wrote about it in this post, and several others, you can find links to them at the bottom of this page.
How do you remind yourself to be grateful for what you have?
