Does Gratitude Begin With Awareness?

This morning as I awoke, my eyes opened wide to a bedroom bathed in sunlight, which lit up the room's detail, from wallpaper in yellows, reds and golds to brown wooden furniture. To the right was the view through the window of sporadic clusters of blooming pink Camelias perched among dark green leaves. This is the blessing of sight, which so many people take for granted, yet other people lack, as they live with limited sight or in a world of darkness.

Next to me slept my beautiful wife Anne, my marital partner for nearly 47 years. As I lovingly looked at her, nearby were photos of our three adult sons and five grandchildren. I have the blessing of love, a blessing everybody hopes for, for it is our reason for being, although some people do take their loved ones for granted.

Had I set my alarm clock, I would have heard it ring, something many other people are unable to do. Without this blessing, it means they also miss hearing conversations among co-workers and friends, magnificent music and many other essential sounds, including whispers and words from their loved ones.

Soon I thrust the covers aside and got out of bed under my own power, needing no-one to help me. And in addition, what a great feeling it was not to have cancer, nor heart disease, nor diabetes, nor any other dreaded disease. For I was fortunate to have the blessings of good health and mobility.

But if I was sick, the doctor is just a phone call and a short drive away. Yet many people throughout the world have limited or no access to doctors and some of those people have no reliable roads, nor vehicles to get them anywhere.

I went into a bathroom warmed by a heater and turned on the faucet, where cold, clean, fresh water ran. And a moment later, used the toilet and then got into a hot shower. All of this in a world where billions of people have no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no clean water and even the water they do have must be toted in by hand from a well or a river.

At breakfast, I chose from a refrigerator full of fresh food, a luxury I didn't always have as a child and a blessing never far from my consciousness. To have supermarkets nearby with thousands of groceries and to have the money to buy from among those groceries is a blessing, a blessing billions of men, women and children in poverty driven parts of the world can only dream of.

When I sat down to breakfast, there was Anne sitting across the table, sharing her presence and her kind words. Not living alone and having the company of a loved one is a blessing, as many a lonely person would tell us.

As I share these feelings with you dear reader, it is from an office located in a lovely home in a community with fine public schools and low crime. This is at a time where here in the U.S., as in much of the industrialized world, many people have lost their homes to foreclosure, and some of them struggle to keep a roof over their heads, and dignity in their hearts. While in many poor parts of the world, school is an unaffordable luxury, as children work in factories or in subsistence farming.

And I can go anywhere I want today, this very minute. There are no physical limitations or limitations of my freedom that would prevent me from doing what I would like. If ever you think that is not a blessing, you need only look as far as your local hospital or to those in hospice care or to those who are imprisoned, people who in many cases desperately wish for that freedom. .

Then there is one of the greatest blessings of all. This morning I spoke with our son Kyle, last night I spoke with our son Kevin and on Saturday night we joined our son Clayton to help him and his wife Maria celebrate our 7 year old grandson Cameron's birthday. The worst calamity any parent could ever face is the death of their child. The next worse is for their child to have a debilitating illness or injury. Our children, their wives and our grandchildren are all with us, and healthy and happy.

Gratitude does begin with awareness and I have learned not to take any of these blessings for granted, for they are profound gifts provided to me at this moment in time, gifts no-one has entitled me to. And I know that as a compassionate and loving person, it is essential that I do as I'm guided to help others who have less, so as to be a blessing in their lives.