Yesterday, I announced that we still have some inspiration posts on the topic of gratitude. Why should November get all the glory? We’re grateful in December, too! Rebecca Ramirez is a blogger at Everything Goes With Pink. She is a stay-at-home-mother to 3 daughters and is expecting her 4th daughter in January. She’s an educated mother who has a passion for writing about family life, her varied interests, and the occasional intellectual topics ranging from philosophy to social consciousness – it’s a good thing she’s a freelance writer! Rebecca is determined to raise her 4 daughters with all the care and dedication that they deserve, and is focused on helping them to be the best individuals they can be. Learn more about Rebecca by joining her on Facebook, Twitter , and her blog, Everything Goes With Pink.
Lessons of Gratitude
by Rebecca Ramirez
In this hectic, fast-paced life, it is easy to get lost in the inexorable negative experiences we will face. No person will escape some form of suffering in their life, and many people will continually experience suffering and hardships on what seems like a never-ending basis. Although we cannot always avoid these potentially personally devastating occurrences, what we can do however, is find it within ourselves to harness the power and wisdom to allow ourselves to experience gratitude, despite the situation in which we find ourselves.
While it also takes wisdom to find gratitude in many of life’s positive experiences, finding the silver lining of one’s raincloud can be quite the liberating experience. We do, in fact, already possess within ourselves the mental capacity to choose whether we will allow a certain situation to invoke a paralyzing sense of victim-hood, or whether we use the energy and convert it into a more favorable experience, be it on a psychological, emotional, or a spiritual basis.
One may not be able to avoid the platforms from which suffering presents itself, such as personal illnesses, detrimental acts of others, or the daily hassles of life, but this should not equate to our lack of control when it comes to how we respond to these events.
There is a lesson of gratitude to be found in all suffering.
While it may not always offer the immediate comfort one would hope for, there is still always room for finding a way to experience some form of gratitude. For the mother who has lost her child, no amount of gratitude can erase the pain, but in this experience, she can still look to the lesson of suffering and be thankful for the love she was able to experience that only a mother could understand. For the individual who is forced to deal with illness, it is in these moments of sometimes agonizing pain that we most appreciate the delicate frailty of life and the peace of mind that comes with good health. Should this individual persevere through their bout with a physical affliction, it is highly doubtful that much in life will be taken for granted.
It is through a lesson of suffering that we can grow to appreciate and have gratitude for the most important things in life. This wisdom of gratitude can transform our thinking on a daily basis, and we can grow to appreciate much more of the simple beauty that life has to offer us all.
