Gratitude

I probably sound like a broken record. I keep saying the same things about life being good again and again; but it's still true. Today I found out a good friend of mine is in the middle of having her world torn down around her. Five days ago she thought everything in her life was great. Things were going the way she wanted them to. She had finally hit one of those calms in your life where you look around and say, " Wow could it be any better!" It usually doesn't last for long, but it usually doesn't get real bad either. Her life just turned really, really bad. And it won't get much better for a long while no matter what she does. It's made me stop and think about my life and life in general. I've decided that I, and I think a lot of us, go thru life waiting for it to get good. I don't think we stop to be grateful for everything that we have. Life may not be great all the time but I'm seeing that it can often be sooo much worse and we don't even recognize it. I think that if we stop day by day to really see the good in our lives, that we eventually will find that we have more "good" days. And that when our lives truly do get really, really bad we'll have the faith to know that it can and will get better. And maybe, just maybe, if we have developed that wonderful strength of gratitude thru practice during our small trials; maybe we won't see our lives as really bad. At least I hope so. I know that we never know when our lives can be changed forever. It only takes a moment. A small step, and it will never be the same again. Whether it's your job or school or your marrige or children. But I hope that I can learn to embrace the good in my life and become as grateful as I should be.