For a long period in my life, I didn’t understand The Power of Gratitude. I thought gratitude was some far-fetched concept that was a croc of B.S. My life was simple: Wake up, go to school, do homework, play video games, REPEAT! I was living my life but I didn’t truly understand the significance of my life.
Sometimes we are so busy living that we do not even pause to recognize how precious each breath is. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably taken life for granted FOR WAY TOO LONG! I used to feel like I was somehow “entitled” to life. It was as if I knew I would wake up the next day. The unfortunate reality for me was that I didn’t recognize how grateful I should be for life itself until it was stripped away from me.
Did you know, that according to statistics, two people die every second! Yes, you read that correctly. While you just read that, about 4 people took their last breath. Okay, let’s say it together……WOAH!!!!!! Could you believe that over 150,000 people die per day? Once again, it seems so distant because it’s not affecting us directly….until it one day does.
Those stats are scary as bloody hell, but what’s even scarier is that you will never be able to answer this one question: “When will you be included in those numbers?”
In 2016, the value of life became REAL for me. The woman who raised me, my Nonna (Grandmother in Italian) suddenly died from a massive heart attack just a couple of days after I told her “Grandma, I’ll sleep over next weekend.” Well, next weekend never came. As I visited her in the hospital as she lay hooked up to life-support all I could do was sit beside her bed and say, “I wish I would have slept over last weekend”.
During that awful time,I said to myself, “I can’t continue to live like this. Taking people and things for granted because I don’t know if it will be still here tomorrow.” I lost her, but she gave me the greatest gift she could have ever given me – she taught me how to live and to value my living.
She taught me how to be grateful for what I have in my life because if I’m not, I’ll realize how grateful I should have been when it’s gone.
My message to you is simple: Stop just running the rat race of life and pause to be grateful for everything you have in life, even life itself. If you’re reading this, the good news is that you still have life to live. If you’re reading this, I also want you to know that you do not, like I did, have to wait for a tragedy to start appreciating what you have.
Repeat after me: “I will begin appreciating everything I have in life and life itself starting RIGHT NOW!” Appreciate everything, especially the small things. God will only give you more when you appreciate what you have. As one of the ancient stoics said, “If a little is not enough for you, nothing is.”
Listen, your life is precious. Nobody can live it for you, but also, nobody can be grateful for it BUT YOU! As I often say, “Life is finite, but the impact I have is infinite and measured only by the hearts and minds of those that I have touched and loved.”
You only have one life to live, there’s no time to wait, act now!