I'm giving thanks each and every day for each and every little thing in my life. Took a cab to a radio interview at ProudFM last Wednesday. It was a great interview with a great host, Mike Chalut, and I quite enjoyed that experience and I give thanks for that aspect of my job. I was struck more so by the cab driver who I met on my way there. He was nicely dressed in a sharp, black leather jacket and dress pants. I can only imagine his shoes were jet black and shiny. His cab was clean and very tidy. He said to me when I asked how he was doing, "I'm alive and I'm thankful."
I just meant to engage in small talk the way I always do but this time I was blessed with a sermon on giving thanks for waking up in the morning, being able to breathe, having legs to walk with and having something to occupy my time. We didn't talk about jobs, we talked about vacations as if your j-o-b is a vacation you are enjoying. And it made sense too! Why do a j-o-b if you are not enjoying it as you would your vacation. Think abou t it, we work hard year-round to spend copious amounts of dollars on another home in another country to get away from our regular home in our country of residence. Yet, we gripe and complain about the cost of living in our home and in this country. Wow, what a revelation! I'm encouraged to think about life the way this man described it to me, to go to my job each day with the same enthusiasm I appreciated New York City or Barbados.
I had all of Thanksgiving Weekend to appreciate my family and friends and the life I'm living and I did. I sent a mass text to all I care about. (I still send mass texts because you all are not following me on twitter!) And I said the words to my family and did those actions to show I'm thankful to have them in my life -- I shared with them my time, my presence and my personality. I feel like I did thanksgiving for the big picture things in my life, overall and general: good health, great work/vacation, good family and friends. But I didn't, until this man reminded me, give thanks for all those little things in life like waking up to see the sun rise, breathing in life each morning, planting my feet on the ground to enjoy another day. There was a time when I really focussed on 'stopping to smell the roses'. Somehow I have forgotten in the last few weeks or even months to appreciate all those little things. When I sing the song "I Believe" I am reminded of all the little things. Sing it for yourself and you'll agree it is a beautiful song.
I am thankful that Ma and I still get to spend time together. Even though I was recovering from a very bad cold, I still made it out in the cool night air to see Scotiabank's Nuit Blanche at the Distillery District. I wish I could have done more but physical limitations and such. Thankful that I got to see some of it with Ma. Even though I was sad my friend Barb had to return to the United States, I'm very thankful I got to know her over the last two years. I'm thankful for all the friends I have made and continue to keep close. Life may get busy, but now I'm counting on the little things like this blog, the pokes on facebook and short emails or texts to keep building my family- and friend-ships.
What are you thankful for? The past Thanksgiving weekend gives us all time to pause and contemplate this question and hopefully verbalize for ourselves those things in life (or all of it) that we are thankful for and can appreciate. I read a blog by Trey Anthony with reflections close to this topic. It was about being happy and content with a simple life or with the simple things in life.
The last thing the man in the cab left me with was something I try to do each day when I step out of my house. I think of it in these terms, "living each day as if it was your last", but he explained it thusly, "Take your clothes for instance, you should wear them and enjoy wearing them, no matter how much or how little they cost. What are you saving them for? Wear them now as they were meant for you or else what will you do when you die, pass them on?" Just like our clothes, which we should wear everyday because saving stuff like that for a rainy day that never comes is silly, so should we wear our smiles on our faces, our hearts on our sleeves and our thanks for a good life every minute of every day. I say wear your Sunday best on Saturdays because you just never know.
