As a people, we are very ambitious and this is good, there can however be a downside to this, if we are not careful. We could find that we lose ourselves in pursuing self-advancement; a bigger degree for that bigger salary, a bigger house, a newer car, and find ourselves wondering, why are we not happy, why does our life feel so dull and empty. The thing is, we forget to be thankful for the little things that we already have, without which, our lives would not mean much. Our relationships, our health, our faith, our freedom, I could go on.
There are times in my life when I feel I could have achieved more in certain areas, and as a result I beat upon myself and take on a 'woe is me' attitude. Thankfully, I am soon reminded that less I be accused of being ungrateful, I do have many other things to be thankful for.
In my pursuit to become a more thankful and happier person, in general then, I am urged to add a new posting feature to my blog, a segment dedicated to being thankful, which I have decided to call ‘GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS', my gratitude journal, if you will, where I will, on Wednesdays of each week, post one thing in my life that I am thankful for, regardless of how small.
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Today I
am grateful for Growth.
I speak
in particular of growth as a result of life lessons. We should all grow from
the darts that life throws our way, whether it be interpersonal relationship issues,
financial issues, health issues. The thing is though, from my experience, we
can only achieve this growth when we allow ourselves to see the underlining lessons
that these issues are teaching us and challenge ourselves to employ these lessons
for growth.
Many
times I look back at my life issues and feel a little bit ashamed of how I
handled some of them. I caused undue pain
and hurt to myself and the persons I love, as a result. I am consoling myself though.
I am telling myself that I just did not know better at the time and that was
just my journey. It would not have happened any other way, because we all have
a unique life journey. I had allowed these issues to define me, I allowed them
to cause me to feel like a victim who the whole world was out to get and I was
able to get others in my dark corner to support and cry with me.
The good
thing for me is that, I did not choose to purchase property and remain in that dark
corner for the rest of my life, because after a while this attitude towards
life was sapping my energy and making me into someone I did not like and so I began
my push toward the sunlight, a little at a time, and as I pushed, I dealt with my issues, what I could not do alone, I sought help, until I could see the sun in
all its glory. My breakthrough came and now as my mother would say, I am living
in the sunshine. Not without other challenges I might add, because what is life
without challenges, they keep you grounded and connected to God. However, I am a happier person and the world is a brighter
place for me.
The
thing is, though, some of us find it very difficult to come out of our dark
corners. We love to romance the depression, the low self esteem, the bitterness
and feel that we would not survive if we give these companions notice and kick
them out. A word of caution here, You could be living in this dark corner with these companions as roommates for the
rest of your life and rob you of quality life. So then, I encourage you to find
the will to get up, deal with your issues, if you cannot deal with them on your
own, get help, because there is a whole new life in the sunshine, awaiting you.
I think I am qualified enough, having been there, to tell you that it will be
hard, but with perseverance and focus, as I have done it, I believe you can
too.
Be aware
that when you choose to step out into the sunshine of life, persons who were
with you, who shared the same situations you were dealing with and continue to
be affected by these situations, might expect you to continue to enable them as they wallow in their
self pity, and cry woe is me, when they realize that you are not
able to because you have moved on and so want for them to move on too, they might
turn on you and even call you names, like self righteous.
They call
it self righteous, I choose to call it Growth.
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