streetperson

I have a little piece of stone that I call my gratitude stone.  It’s a small little round bead, no bigger than my little finger.  I carry it around with me in my pocket most of the time, it hardly weighs anything, and I don’t really notice it there.

It’s only a heavy piece of rock, because it carries for me, the weight of my world.  It’s there because whenever I am challenged by life, this little piece of rock reminds me to be grateful — reminds me to count the one blessing that I am most thankful for, amongst the many little blessings that I have in my life.

That I am alive, to be challenged.  To be thankful for the people around me, thankful for the circumstances that are stretching me to respond, thankful for the lessons that I will learn along the way, thankful for the difficulties that will give me the necessary experiences that can only prepare me for even greater challenges.

Thankful that I have my health, thankful that I have my wits, thankful that I have even have this day to wake up to.

When I start to look for the one blessing that I am most grateful for, and can’t really decide which of the many blessings could possibly be the best, I am thankful that I even have blessings to count.

I don’t remember to be grateful a lot of the time, and it’s difficult to be sometimes with the hurdles that seem to come along.  When situations seem impossible, when there doesn’t seem to be resolutions to these situations.  The mind gets clouded and we despair.

There are times when we want to sit in a corner to cry, when we wonder how things could turn out so badly.  Times when everything seems impossible.  Times when we try so hard but nothing turns out the way we want them to.  Times when everything that can possibly go wrong, that will not only go wrong but bring you levels of wrongness that you never imagined possible.

And this little stone would nudge me.  Deep in my pocket.  To look for the one blessing and to remember to be grateful.

And magic happens.

And I realise that the things that I am grateful for, have more often than not, been preceeded with difficulties that I didn’t think I could get through either.  Things work out, in strange ways.

And with each challenge, thankful for the new paths that life would have lead me and new people that I would meet, and understand better the people who would have stood by me.  Thankful that I would discover a little bit more about who I am and what I stand for.

So yes, I am grateful.  Grateful for the paths that are created. For the people whom I have met.  Grateful for my family who have been there.  Grateful for all the difficulties that life has ever shown me.

It’s just a stone.  But it’s not any piece of stone.

This little piece of stone that sits in my pocket, carries with it, all the blessings of my life.  And if there’s anything I will wish for you my friend, is that you will find a little piece of stone that will become for you, the gratitude stone that mine has become to me.

Happy Year of the Rat!