Gratefulness(感謝する)

Gratefulness(感謝する)

"In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy."
-Brother David Steindl-Rast-

A word that is easy to be uttered but truthfully hard to be applied in daily life and honestly, i too struggle to practice gratefulness in my life. I know that this is not just merely an empty word and if you and I do not have this in our life, we won't be able to make peace within ourselves. Gratefulness is when you are thankful of what you have and do not demand for more. There is no wrong in demanding for more but it also depends on the occasion and situation. Jealousy is the root cause of ungratefulness. Hence, in order to be grateful, firstly we should remove the jealousy that has embedded firmly in our heart. Everyone has that somewhere in their heart so don't judge yourself just because you have that sort of feeling.

However, that feeling has to be curb as gentle and as careful as possible because if jealousy has control your mind and emotion, it could lead to other problems. You should be aware by now that not everything that we feel is right and can be pursued. You know yourself well so I believe that you can differentiate between the genuine diamond and the fake ones. Everyone has their own way and views on seeing things so do I. I got jealous easily especially towards someone who has something that I don't have or they just simply have something more than what I have currently.

Eventually, I know the feeling that I have that time is natural but are not to be pursued any further. You have your own purpose or what you want in this life so do I. Will I be wasting my time to be jealous of others? Will I be spending some of my precious time by thinking of what others have that I don't? I don't think I will. Yes, jealousy, the feeling of wanting to have more(greedy) are sometimes good because those push you or make you work harder to achieve what you want but anything that is extreme, too much is no good. Balance is the key to everything especially when you are struggling with something.

I believe that Lord is just in sketching our paths. Often we tend to think that He tends to give more to someone else except for me and He tends to pay attention to someone else but not me. However, if you look at everything neutrally and positively you'll realize that everyone has equal portion to one and another. For example, we tend to judge people that has less money are not happy and people that has a lot of money are happy. If we look at it in different perspective have you ever wonder why there are still people who own a lot of money but committed suicide? Why there are still people who own a lot of money but still feel empty and happy? And why there are people who others see as less fortunate but smile and laugh more than anyone else?

Lord is just and He knows best about us. Things that we wish to have/own are sometimes destructive to us but we tend to ignore that fact because of jealous and greediness. Grateful is when you are thankful of how many eggs in your own basket rather than comparing the number of eggs that you have with someone else's. Today, I'm writing this because i feel ungrateful and jealous of someone else. As I'm writing this, I am actually reflecting myself and trying to make peace within myself. As I'm counting eggs in my own basket, i realized that everyone has equal number of eggs in their basket. If you look at things from various perspective, you'll realize it eventually. Have a nice day!

Love,

JINN