WOW, what a day, one filled with ceaseless, unbelievable, overwhelming challenges. Everyone has now gone to bed, and finally there is stillness all around. It is nice to sit and reflect on the hurricane of a day.
It seems the first place to start is with gratitude. What are all the blessings of the day? What went well? On the other hand, what about all the “contrast”? You know, those things that make you uncomfortable, those things that make you want to look for the nearest bridge to jump off of?
Ahh, the contrast is a blessing too. Just imagine what it will be like once we overcome all of that? It certainly pushes us to look for the “better feeling place,” as Esther Hicks says.
Tonight as I count my blessings, I express gratitude for my health. Today I read the following quote:
“He who has health has hope,
and he who has hope has everything.”
— Arabian proverb
What, if anything, do we have if we do not have good health? Yesterday I received a message telling me a heartbreaking story about a person I know. A portion of the story went like this:
“They don’t know what caused it all, just that his liver is failing as well as his kidneys. They will not do dialysis until they can get his liver stable. He was unresponsive yesterday, so they took him by ambulance to the medical center. They said that he has a lot of toxin build-up because the kidneys aren’t functioning. They are hoping to get him on a transplant list for his liver.”
I don’t know about your day, but my contrast piled all together is a thimble’s worth compared to what this poor man is going through. We have so much to be grateful for when we have our good health, and how long will we have good health if we don’t mind our mind and take care of ourselves?
Perhaps life-threatening contrast serves to wake us up so that we learn to do what the Budda teaches us:
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for
the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate
troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
Tonight I express gratitude for all the day’s events that went well and for all the things that didn’t go so well. The contrast is my teacher. Tonight I appreciate this present moment and vow to be more wise as I go about spending tomorrow’s moments.
