A Thankful Post-It Note
Each lesson in life is like a little workaround. Work-arounds for a computer system are best expressed as all of those little Post-it notes that people have stuck to their computer screen. The workarounds of life are best expressed by the contentment felt by the possessor of the work-around, or life lesson. I think one of my greatest “Post it notes”: is thankfulness. Most of us will soon celebrate a day of thankfulness after which we will launch into the Christmas season. I always thought it was odd to have only one day to be thankful but perhaps Thanksgiving can be a sort of springboard to launch an appreciative work-around for the rest of the year.
I think most of us were taught to say “thank you” as children. I used to think that this was to acknowledge something nice that had been done for me or perhaps just good manners. I think now it is a reminder to ourselves more than a kind response to others.
Thankfulness is more than just an honorable habit. A thankful mind is like a shield to negative thoughts and despair. I think a lot of human sadness comes as a result of self-pity. I think most self-pity comes as a result of feeling that life has dealt unfairly with you. The world can be unfair and its inhabitants make arbitrary decisions that are not fair. The cut their actions make does not bleed if you maintain your thankfulness.
Being thankful is like charging your own battery. Sadness and despair are a solid mass of darkness however the darkness cannot project itself into light while light easily pierces darkness. Darkness only wins when you voluntarily consider what is lost rather than what still remains.
There are times when despair seems the appropriate choice. Deep loss would seem a logical abyss into which thankfulness should be tossed. It is during these times when people need to maintain their spot in life. They should not demand forward progress of themselves, but they should not embrace retreat. It is times like these when you need to look to either side and count all the good in your life, even as you acknowledge the loss. It is a spot that has enough space to experience your loss and appreciate what you still have. It’s sad to lose a horse but you should still appreciate the barn from which it escaped. It would be nice if life was perfect but, like most computer systems, it contains the imperfections that bedevil the easy life. Life has only so much space for Post-it notes so make sure each tiny patch of paper is worth it. If there is a work-around you should scribble down and place somewhere then let it be this phrase, “be thankful,”
