Gratitude, Day 4

Yesterday I was thankful for things because of their absence at the time (i.e. a comfortable bed and good, clean books). Today I decided to be thankful for things that ARE. Here’s what I came up with.

1. People who go out of their way to help perfect strangers – I’m teaching classes in Houston and one of my students (who happens to be the food critic at the Houston Chronicle) took several minutes out of her day to make a list of restaurants that I had to visit – “you HAVE to have a good time while you’re here.” My friend/co-worker Lee and I went to a Vietnamese recommendation this evening. YUMMY!!
2. Decreasing gas prices. I drove by a gas station this evening where gas was $2.09/gallon. I leapt for joy (on the inside, of course, as I was driving at the time).
3. That I live in a country where every citizen, regardless of gender, race, religion, etc. can exercise the right to vote (or NOT to vote, if they so desire). Even if, sometimes, people vote the wrong way. ☺

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”
--Sarah Ban Breathnach, in John Cook, comp., The Book of Positive Quotations, 2nd ed. (2007), as quoted by Thomas S. Monson