I have not always been the most grateful person. In fact, when I used to hear people talk about how gratitude was a gift, I thought they were being a bit disingenuous.
Then, over the span of a few years, a lot of stuff went wrong. I lost dear friends and family, both to untimely deaths and departures. C developed serious health issues, and developmental issues followed soon after. My career was foundering, and financial worries came along for the ride.
But then. Nestled in among the bad stuff was a lot of great stuff. Some of it was new, a lot of it was old, things I just hadn’t noticed before. (Maybe because, you know, I wasn’t looking for it.)
A good portion of my cynicism faded away. My sense of outrage mellowed. I realized that, compared to most people on this small rock, I’m doing pretty damn great, even after taking the bad stuff into consideration. When I looked at it that way, I realized I’m a pretty lucky guy.
So I’m grateful.
Life isn’t meant to be easy or fair. It’s not necessarily meant to be anything, in my opinion. It is, as they say, what you make of it.
So I’m trying to make mine a life of gratitude. (Wish me luck.)
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!