The Many Expressions of Gratitude

For many of my American friends, you will have just celebrated Thanksgiving and I am sure that gratitude is fresh on your mind as you have spent time with family and are now preparing for the Christmas holidays.

I have talked of gratitude before on this blog, but I bring up this topic again as I feel that when you live a life that focuses on blessings you are living more in-line with the good energies of the world. I personally feel that if we could teach more gratitude-based approaches to living and viewing the world we would be a lot more joyful in our daily lives. I think sometimes it’s easy for people to focus on the negative and the things that are going wrong in their lives and it can overshadow the many blessings that they have. Our society has grown more in this direction over the years where people want to live a perfectly pain-free, struggle-free life and want everything to always go well all the time. When this doesn’t happen they become disappointed in life and despair of the future.

Of course, there are many expressions of gratitude, but for me I had never seen such a raw expression of it as I have seen through the eyes of the people here on the Africa Mercy. Patients who have endured an lifetime of suffering and struggle to get where they are today and who have undergone massive surgeries and recoveries - and who are literally singing with joy! To be a witness to this has truly changed my life, and I've only been here for a few days. To express in words these changes to my heart is actually really hard to do. I feel like prior to coming here I really did not have a full understanding of gratitude. In only a few days I have learned in a new and refreshing way what it means to truly sing praises to God for even the smallest miracles....to offer up thanksgiving and gratitude for the simple things like water and shelter....to see true compassion and love for one another in the actions of so many is honestly overwhelming.

If ever you were concerned about the world and thought that there was no hope, or no more love out there, or that people no longer care about each other - if ever you despaired for the future of our universe....come to Africa and see....there is so much love here. There is so much gratitude....There is so much compassion being expressed through these ministries here. It is unlike anything I have ever been witness too. It has inspired me beyond words to be a more grateful person. To not take for granted the many blessings that I have been given.

I encourage you as you move into the Christmas season to take time each day to offer up gratitude for your life. (And not just thankfulness for getting a park close to the shopping entrance, or getting a short line at the register! Haha) but true thankfulness for the massive blessings that we have in our lives every day...for the clean water we drink, for the healthcare services that we are provided with, for the jobs that provide for our families, for the schools for our children, for the freedom to live whatever life we choose to live.....The list is endless. I have NO idea why I was born into the life I was, but I am so extremely grateful, and I pray that I will have an opportunity to express that gratitude through the love and compassion that I share with others.

"With every breath I offer up gratitude." ~ Namaste