Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
When I experienced great loss very early in my life, I could have let that loss define me. I might have felt justified to walk around with a chip on my shoulder, feeling as if life had dealt me a bad hand. Those losses could have shaken me to the core of who I am. But my father helped me to see the butterfly, remember? So early in my life, his example taught me to . . . look for the miracle.
Gratitude helps us see the light in the darkness, the potential of healing among the sick, the hope among the hopeless. In spite of what I’ve lost, I haven’t lost everything. I know gratitude is the key. The key to everything.
When I’m out in nature . . . thank you.
When I see a butterfly . . . thank you.
When I see good people doing their best to make this world a better place . . . thank you.
Viktor Frankl, who experienced the horrors of the concentration camp, famously said, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
That someone who experienced one of the darkest moments of our human history can see hope still, gives me hope. He would not be defined by what happened to him. Instead he said: “Everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
We can choose darkness and lack. Or we can choose light, hope, and gratitude.
May we all choose light.
My life has been geared toward a search for light, a desire to see the helpers, not just the helpless. Perhaps that has been why I’ve been so drawn to the work of Operation Smile. The people in this organization are bringers of light. They see the children in need of surgery; they see the hole that no one is filling. And they take time out of their busy lives to go and fill that hole. To heal that child. What they do truly changes lives. Those healed children go forth into their lives with a new call, a renewed hope, and a beam of light that shines brightly wherever they go. Those children know the call of gratitude. It is in their eyes, in their now-bright smiles, in their hugs and kisses.
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
CHARLES SWINDOLL
Thank you. To the doctor who healed me. The person who donated. And God, who is the ultimate healer.
There is a parable that tells the story of a man walking on a beach covered with thousands of starfish. They literally litter the beach, making it hard to walk. And as the man gazes along the shore, he notices a little boy walking carefully through the starfish and every now and then stopping, gingerly picking up a starfish, and throwing it into the sea. The man walks up to the boy to ask him what he is doing. And the boy explains that when the tide goes out, all these starfish will die, no longer close to the sea, and unable to reach their home. The man knows this is true and says, “But there are too many out here for you to save. You won’t really be able to make a difference.”
The boy stops, picks up another starfish, and throws it into the water.
“It made a difference to that one,” he says triumphantly.
No, we cannot save the entire world, but, one child at a time, we can make a difference. Let’s not be paralyzed by the huge need in our world or overwhelmed by all the pain—and end up doing nothing. We must do something, and if we each do something, give something, help someone, then together we can make a difference.
In that way, we can live our lives as a chorus of gratitude.
There is no time to waste.
When I was growing up, we had a room that we called “the good room.” It was the room where we would entertain guests, and in it lived a little china cabinet with glass doors, and within this was my mother’s greatest treasure: a set of fine china that had been given to her as a wedding gift. Oh, how she loved that china. It was her most expensive and luxurious possession. As children, we were not often allowed in the good room, because she didn’t want us playing in there and perhaps jostling the cabinet and breaking one of her precious dishes. The cabinet was locked with a little key, and my mother would only open it to wash the china, carefully dry it, and then arrange it back nicely inside.
One afternoon during the height of the Troubles, after the British army had arrived, we were all gathered in the kitchen. The army had brought these humongous armored Saracens that would rumble through our narrow streets. And when this happened, the entire house would shake.
This particular afternoon, we heard the telltale growl of a Saracen turning down our street, and then we began to feel the tremors as its large mass made its way up the hill. And as the house began to shake, we heard a loud crash come from the good room. My mother’s hand flew to her face and she ran down the hallway, grabbing the key to the china cabinet as she went. But there was no need to open it. It was clear what had happened as soon as we walked into the room. The top shelf had collapsed onto the bottom shelf, and every single piece of her china was shattered.
My mother fell to her knees, opened the cabinet door, and cried, touching her precious china that was now destroyed for good.
You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
PABLO NERUDA
That image has stayed with me for my entire life.
We all have things we want to save, that we want to preserve. But my mother was keeping that china for what? A special day sometime in the future? Sadly, she never got to enjoy it.
And I’ve learned from that to enjoy each moment for the blessing it is, because none of us is guaranteed anything more than right now.
I’m someone who wants to jump in and seize the moment. I’m not locking up any rooms. Let’s thank God for every gift and use it to its fullest.
An attitude of gratitude means every day is the best. Every day is a cause for celebration. From the beauty of the sunrise to the splendor of the sunset, may we all bask in the glory that God has given.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, God.
There is treasure buried in the field of every one of our days, even the bleakest or dullest, and it is our business, as we journey, to keep our eyes peeled for it.
FREDERICK BUECHNER
The belief that happiness has to be deserved has led to centuries of pain, guilt, and deception. So firmly have we clung to this single, illusory belief that we’ve almost forgotten the real truth about happiness. So busy are we trying to deserve happiness that we no longer have much time for ideas such as: Happiness is natural, happiness is a birthright, happiness is free, happiness is a choice, happiness is within, and happiness is being. The moment you believe that happiness has to be deserved, you must toil for evermore.
Robert Holden
