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Practicing Gratitude


It's exactly five days before my birthday and I just thought I'd write something about that. It's not that I think my birthday is a big deal; rather I did on a number of occasions try to forget about it. I don't really celebrate my birthday with much grandeur as some would. I just usually sit down with close friends and treat them to drinks or food, or whatever. It's nothing special. I just end up burning up the birthday gifts that my parents give me. They usually give me money you see, which is great for that purpose. 

Anyway, this year I thought I'd do something different, or at least see things differently.

I've read it somewhere that birthdays shouldn’t be celebrated out of pride but rather of gratitude for one more year of life. It's like a celebration of my one year cycle; regardless of whether or not it was substantial enough to celebrate about. It is to be grateful of what the year has brought; with all of its twists and turns, shouts of joy or pain, tears of sadness or of joy. It is a practice of gratitude towards Life. What I failed to realize all these years is that gratitude isn't something intrinsic and personal. Rather it is a practice that is unnatural and uncomfortable. It is something that is outside our normal feeling. That really struck me somehow.

A whole lot of us still desire a lot of things; things that we feel like we need. Are we really feeling gratitude when we look at our comic book collection, or book collection, or gadgets, bank accounts, or what expensive things we are wearing right now? Real gratitude isn’t really a practice of being thankful with the things that we have that make us happy, but rather it is being grateful for everything. Grateful that we are alive; that we exist where we are. That we are sitting in some part of the world with electricity, that you can afford to own a computer and be on the internet, to be enjoying a warm bed when you finally shut your computer down, to have water when you’re thirsty, or to simply be safe for the night. There are a whole lot of things that people take for granted that we should be grateful for.

Go ahead. I challenge you to do the same. In 90 seconds, I want you to list down all the things that you’re grateful for today. Really think about the small things that you tend to overlook. Here's me doing it myself! Here I go!

  • English
  • Words
  • Portable Music
  • Good Movies
  • Humor
  • Internet
  • Google chrome
  • Emailing
  • Friends
  • Legs
  • Shoes
  • Fan
  • Bed
  • Light
  • Clean air
  • Cameras
  • Communication
  • Pizza
  • Potatoes
  • Remote controls
  • Headsets
  • Water
  • Fire
  • Wood
  • Vitamin C
  • Hair
  • Wallets
  • Rust
  • Chords
  • Cotton
  • Plastic
  • Darkness
  • Oil
  • Motorcycles
  • Innovation
  • Technology
  •  Children
  • Manual labor
  • High society
  • Humility
  • Love
  • Pain
  • Memories
  • Optimism
  • Economy
  • Farts
  • Chinese
  • Noodles
  • Jesus
  • Hope


That’s my 90 second gratitude list! Not bad if you ask me. But you know what, I think you can do better!  Make one for yourself! If you made the list then you should post it on your blog or your profile. But before you do that, I want you to go through each and every one of them and I want you to really think about a reason why you are grateful for that certain something. Let me know how it ends up for you brother or sister! Thank you for reading. J

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