What Are You Grateful For?

What Are You Grateful For?

Gratitude they say depends on what is in your heart rather than what is in your hand. A grateful person is not limited by his or her surrounding but that person's heart is open to still see a message in a mess. No one has it all. Life has its way of humbling us and if we have an open heart, we can learn even from the ants. Life is an endless flow of learning as opportunities would always present themselves for us to learn even when we are not looking but we need to be sensitive enough to understand and know it.

I was more humbled when we visited the orphanage of these amazing challenged children. It was after a Sunday service and we embarked on the visit. We were unable to take pictures with them, as expected because there are so many people who can pry on these pictures and use them to scam so many people. We managed to take few pictures of ourselves.

I was happy when I saw these children in high spirit. They were all over the place, dancing, singing and praying. Even with distorted speeches, you can make sense out of everything they were saying. They were happy, grateful and in high spirit.

In Economics we have come to understand that human needs are insatiable. We keep wanting more after each target have been achieved. We want more of everything which has often made us to be insensitive and ungrateful. We don't appreciate the little we have. We might not even be thankful for the little we got because we want more than that and seeing these children being happy and grateful despite the complications around them, I was humbled.

What are you grateful for? Take a deep breath, think deeply about the things that worked out and take focus on the ones that didn't. Learn from every mistake but don't dwell on them. Focus on the little you got rather than the other part you have missed or could have gained more. It doesn't matter whether the glass is half full or half empty, be grateful you even have a glass, to begin with.

We take the focus off the things we have and start counting the losses rather than our blessings. I love being grateful. I love appreciating every little thing and this is why I was super excited when I saw Rusty on my post a few days ago and I wasn't having this entitled feeling. No one owes me anything so whatever I get, I am always over the moon for it.

If we can start focusing on the things we gained rather than the things we missed out on, it would shift our perspective into things. Life is not as difficult as we make it out to be. I am grateful to still be in Nigeria even at this time. To even be alive to earn is a rare privilege because I know others have it worse even though I still want more but I won't be blinded to the things I have now.

Happiness is relative but we can determine our happiness by the things we choose to focus on. We are here to make a difference. Imagine everyone doing their part for these challenged children or anyone in need of help, surely every bit can help. Most people always cite not having enough but the truth is, there can never be enough as we wish because our wants are insatiable. If we care enough and share enough, the world would have enough. The world has enough of our needs but not enough for our greed. We should do everything we can to help those who need it.

Helping those who need it has its way of opening up your heart to know you should be grateful. I am happy I was part of the people who put smiles on these children's faces. It delights me to always help. In as much as we gave to them, they gave me so much more in the lessons I picked from them.