Michael Canfield is the man that you’ll see in the following YouTube.com video.
https://youtu.be/Gy82mvVLdho?si=JBIgrqixCzS0zbxz
I watched this film and in spite of my hubris, my anger, my unwillingness to simply let go, it came to me that the only person I’m damaging by not simply being thankful for what I have, is me.
Life is exceptionally finite. Many of us ‘fight’ our way through life as though the test is to arrive at the end wizened and worn, a testament to our own stubbornness.
Tell me. What is the point in that.
Gratitude is accepting our frailties, our humanness.
We are not immortal. We don’t have anywhere to go. We are only here once, and then, we are gone.
To find peace with ourselves and to contribute something of value each day, if only to ourselves, should be enough.
I haven’t ‘changed the world’, or found the cure for cancer, or saved thousands of lives.
I’ve simply lived.
Yet, I have never had enough gratitude for this life.
I’m 72, and my doctors have told me I should be thankful that I’m alive. I agree. I lived through 20, yes, 20 life threatening events.
And it’s only now, especially when reminded by a man of true wisdom, like Michael, that I come to this place in my life where I can appreciate gratitude, and experience it.
In fact, revel in it.
I am fortunate. I have enough. I need nothing except the company of my wife and my dog, Ollie.
I now, like Michael, find things each day that I can be grateful for.
Coffee in the morning. Sleep, sometimes without great pain. The clouds outside my window. The mist on the mountains, just up the road.
A kiss, that comes with a piece of raisin bread, and the warm breath of Ollie on my shoulder, expecting his morning ‘treat’.
For this, I am grateful. For my health, such as it is, I’m grateful. For the motorcycle I still ride into the mountains where I love to walk, I’m grateful.
Drop your anger. It will kill you as surely as it has killed millions before. Let go of those things you can’t change, and accept that the world is unfair and totally fucked up.
Greed, is not good, and some men whose goal is to do nothing more than take from others what they can, will one day discover that nothing they have is worth anything.
Without respect, without love, without peace and without gratitude, you have absolutely nothing.
Wisdom is not always found, and often it is found too late.
Be grateful for what you have. Love those who matter to you in your life. Be kind. Be generous. Love with all your heart.
And find peace in the end.
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