I can't count with all 10 fingers and toes the times I have caught myself taking the little things for granted; but who doesn't? I also cannot truthfully claim that I have met a genuine person who has never taken a single thing for granted. While this all may be true, I have had a number of revelational moments in my life that knock the wind out of me when I sit back and see how lucky I really am.
That moment when you're laying in bed at night at the end of one of your better days and you can't help yourself but stare off into the open space of your bedroom and smile. The special days when you are accepted a much anticipated job, lose that extra pound you have been fighting for weeks, or realize your actions made somebody's day. These moments of realization keep our minds set straight for the days we feel like we have lost everything.
The days when we are scared to step out of the house for work or school because so many things have already gone wrong in the hour you've been awake that you fear what will go wrong in the next 10 hours to come; The days when devastating news makes you forget that you woke up that morning, had clothes to wear, and a roof over your head. More often than not, I drive home after a long day angry at everybody around me, finding every reason to be upset. My paycheck wasn't big enough, I argued with my parents, and my favorite pair of jeans from high high school no longer make it up.
With the good days, the bad days, and all of the days in between, if you have not experienced a day where you wake up and can't help but loose yourself in happiness for all you really have, I hope with everything in me that you are lucky enough to live one of these days.
Challenge yourself. Wake up in the morning and be thankful for the comforter that kept you warm last night while the roof over your head protected you from the hail storm. Make your commute to work or school, and whatever it may be; be thankful it exists. If you find yourself not able to be thankful, you are missing the point. You don't have a car like everybody else around you? Be thankful for the city bus, your bike, or your legs that got you to your destination. You don't wear Hollister jeans with ugg boots and diamond earrings? Be thankful for the local church that donated clothes to you or the sales rack at target. Be thankful for the shirt on your back.
Being thankful for the little things can be next to impossible in our society today, and I am the first to admit I fall short of this challenge multiple times before I even leave my house every morning. The grass is always greener on the other side; accept for those days I crawl into bed at night with flooding thoughts of all I was blessed with in the last 24 hours. How lucky we are to have the ability to be thankful.
