One Smile Away from a Great Day.
What are the odds on you being you? I mean seriously, when you stop and think about it, there are so many things that had to go right for you to end up as who you are.
It’s been calculated by people a lot smarter than I am that the odds of just being human are somewhere around 400 trillion to one. That number is so insanely large we really don’t have a good way to emotionally experience it.
How would you even go about defining it?
And that’s just being a human being, to say nothing about the odds of being…you! The experiences you’ve had, or in some cases, not had.
The near fatal accidents you missed because you took a wrong turn, or the firework that could have blinded you, but just left a good sized burn in your thigh (my Fourth of July was memorable this year, as in ‘I will have a nice scar to remember it by’).
When you start to consider all of the things that need to have happened to bring you to the point of right now – it’s staggering, mind blowing, beyond comprehending.
Especially when you consider that it could all be changed or gone in an instant.
I’ve lived long enough to know that the world, or even your very own personal universe, can take a hard detour without a moment’s notice, taking the things you thought you could rely on and turning them on their head.
There’s only one antidote, or one vaccine, that can really help you prepare for and survive these events.
Gratitude.
I know that sounds kind of simple, but the funny thing is, the answers to most of the big things in life are simple. I think we sometimes get so caught up with our technological marvels, and the safety and security that we have created for ourselves in our daily world, that we forget just how amazing we have it right now.
Yes there are things that are scary, and yes bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. But at the end of it all, when you look at it long enough, hopefully you come to the realization that takes you to a place in your soul where you are grateful just for the chance to be here, and to partake in this day to day madness we call life.
And I hope you smile in your gratitude.
I really don’t care how you think we got here. A higher power, an evolved consciousness, a single intelligence of which we are but a part... Who knows. I really don’t care what you believe, it doesn’t matter. Because in the end, if you have enough gratitude in your heart, you’ll find your way to the next emotion that changes everything.
Because gratitude is the gateway drug of love.
You can’t love someone without being grateful for them. One flows from the other. And the funny thing about love, really deep abiding love, is that it changes you, and your world, for the better. The more love we have in the world, the less hate.
Or to see it in the way of Master Yoda… “Gratitude leads to love, love leads to serving, serving leads to happiness”. (Yeah, you read it in his voice didn’t you – it’s ok, so did I).
So today, may you find time to smile in gratitude, and share that smile with someone who needs it. I have had many days recently where the smile of a single person has been the tipping point, bringing me back to a sense of gratitude, and a deeper desire to serve.
May we find love and gratitude in our hearts, today and always.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings