Thanking heaven even for our difficulties and misfortunes is the best way to transform them. You will see your difficulties in a different light, as if you had wrapped them in a film of pure gold.
Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.
The theme for the month of November (on Sundays) is still Gratitude. But for this particular Wednesday, I’ve decided we need a change in the words of the nursery rhyme. I’m going to squeeze a little hope in alongside gratitude. Don’t you think they’ll do well together???
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe hope,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonnie and blithe and good and gay.[1]
The theme for the month of November is Gratitude. This continues a practice on this blog over the years I’ve been posting quotes, reflections, and photos.
Thank you for reading and viewing!
A life of gratitude accepts the bad with the good. Genuine gratitude is not a zero sum game in which thankfulness increases the more fortunate you are and decreases the more adversity you experience.
Have you ever been surprised by love? Surprised by beauty? Surprised by kindness? It is always a good time to share that kind of loving surprise with others. Here is a short list of ways to commit random acts of kindness. You could probably add to the list!!
~ The next toll booth you come to, pay for a car behind you.
~ Send a thank you letter to a teacher you once had, letting him or her know the difference the teacher made in your life.
~ Ask an older person to tell you a story about his or her youth.
~ Order a mail order gift anonymously for a friend or co-worker.
~ Give another driver your parking spot.
~ Let someone merge ahead of you, smile and wave at that person.
~ Write a note to the boss of someone who has helped you, thanking the boss for having such a great employee.
~ Praise the work or attitude of a co-worker to someone else in the workplace.
~ Write a note to the owner of a house or garden in your neighborhood whose beauty gives you pleasure.
~ Say, “I love you” to 20 people for whom it’s true.
Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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