I've been under the weather for about a week, and it's thrown me off, including the timing of Monday Motivation.
But it's also made me reflect on the fact that many of the greatest blessings in our lives are ignored until they are missing.
In my case, it's health -- a cold has put everything into the hazy world of "Just let me get to bed and I'll be all right." In other cases, it's money, or jobs, or mobility, or optimism, or hope, or loved ones.
It's on the last item that I write today. I was reflecting last evening that it's been over 30 years since my father died, and 12 years since my mother passed away. The people who come through our lives all inevitably leave us, in one way or another, even when they would rather not go -- or perhaps we are the ones who would leave.
But for some reason, when the sun is shining in our lives, we rarely notice it. Indeed, most of us rarely appreciate a sunny day until we are confronted with a gloomy one. There are those incredible individuals who give every relationship its due, love everyone as fully as they can be loved, treat each opportunity as the rare item that it is. There are those individuals who love deeply, live happily, and leave goodness and joy wherever they go. These people have learned that each day is a miracle to be cherished, and they live accordingly.
For these blessed individuals, life is a series of blessings, each to be counted.
How do they do it? Each is different, to be sure -- but among them all is a pair of shared characteristics -- they live each day wisely and fully, cherishing it for what it is and what it brings, and treat people in the same way; and they live life positively, looking for the best in each person and in each new day.
I have tried through the last part of my life to be one of them -- to look at the miracles around me, and the people who I meet. I have tried to see the best in every person and every new day. Some of the time, I've succeeded, and many times, I've failed. But I have found that in this case, the journey is an important one. I have been blessed by the people around me, and the circumstances and loved ones that the good Lord has brought into my life, and the more I have realized that, the better off I have become. But when I have failed to realize these blessings, the joy in my life has been lessened as a result.
In re-reading this piece, it sounds a lot like a swan song, and I don't mean to make it sound that way. Perhaps sickness brings about a time to reflect, or perhaps it's the care and love shown to me by my sweet wife that helps me see the good in the world around me.
But to all of us, let me leave this hope: that we learn to love each day and each person for the miracles that accompany them, and that we never again treat the blessings in our life with the callous disregard that many of us offer. Life is a series of miracles and the sooner we realize that fact, the more we will see the miracles at work in each and every part of our lives.
Don't ignore the miracles around you, or the loved ones around you, until it's too late.
Copyright, 2010, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.
