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THOUGHTS OF GRATITUDE AND
THANKFULNESS TO FILL YOUR DAY!
THOUGHTS OF GRATITUDE AND
THANKFULNESS TO FILL YOUR DAY!
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More Thoughts Of Gratitude How Poor People Live...Hmmm 10 Clear Signs That You Are Middle Aged The Past In Black and White |
Gratitude --The Secret to a Long Life
Live life with gratitude --and you may
very well live longer. Studies on people
who live to over 100 years have found
that one of the most common traits these
centenarians share is that they are
profoundly grateful. They are grateful
even though many of them have led
difficult lives --surviving the Great
Depression, loss of parents at an early
age, death of children, cancer, war.
How can they be so grateful? Many of
them respond by saying that gratitude
and thankfulness are choices. They have
chosen to see life as bountiful, despite the
scarcity they have found. They have
chosen to see happiness, despite the
cruelty they have endured. Ellie Weisel,
the late noted Holocaust survivor, found
that even in circumstances as dire, as
brutally damaging to the human spirit as
living in a death camp, some people found
reasons to be optimistic, reasons to be
grateful. Reasons to be happy that they
were alive.
So, live life in a spirit of gratitude. It is,
quite simple, a choice to live.
Live life with gratitude --and you may
very well live longer. Studies on people
who live to over 100 years have found
that one of the most common traits these
centenarians share is that they are
profoundly grateful. They are grateful
even though many of them have led
difficult lives --surviving the Great
Depression, loss of parents at an early
age, death of children, cancer, war.
How can they be so grateful? Many of
them respond by saying that gratitude
and thankfulness are choices. They have
chosen to see life as bountiful, despite the
scarcity they have found. They have
chosen to see happiness, despite the
cruelty they have endured. Ellie Weisel,
the late noted Holocaust survivor, found
that even in circumstances as dire, as
brutally damaging to the human spirit as
living in a death camp, some people found
reasons to be optimistic, reasons to be
grateful. Reasons to be happy that they
were alive.
So, live life in a spirit of gratitude. It is,
quite simple, a choice to live.
Here's one from the past. I think you'll enjoy it. Whomever wrote this must have
been my next door neighbor because it totally described my childhood to a T.
Hope you enjoy it.
The Past In Black and White
(Under age 40? You won't understand.)
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting
board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food
poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw
sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown
paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine
pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was
the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE.. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top
Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air
cushion sole s and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must
have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much
harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying
in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we
had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to
be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo,
X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee
sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction site s, an
d when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids
liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt
spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle
of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a
horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our
butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the
front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have
owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a
goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a
dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known t hat?
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were
obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the
entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T- SORRY
FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very
often the best.
been my next door neighbor because it totally described my childhood to a T.
Hope you enjoy it.
The Past In Black and White
(Under age 40? You won't understand.)
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting
board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food
poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw
sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown
paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine
pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was
the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE.. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top
Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air
cushion sole s and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must
have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much
harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying
in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we
had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to
be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo,
X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee
sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction site s, an
d when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids
liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt
spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle
of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a
horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our
butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the
front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have
owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a
goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a
dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known t hat?
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were
obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the
entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T- SORRY
FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very
often the best.