Gratitude

After work one night, I wanted to stop and pay my cell phone bill. I could take the green light and head home, or wait through the red left turn arrow and hit up the store. It was the start of my weekend, so getting home to relax seemed like the best idea. I was about to take the green, when at the last second... I chose to wait.

I pulled into the plaza, only to find the store closed. When I turned back onto the street, I caught a shadowy figure crossing in the middle. It was a man inching along with the aid of a walker. I had a distinct feeling that he could use some help, so I turned around to give him a few bucks. As we exchanged greetings, his loving smile and kind eyes drew my attention away from his missing leg. I handed him the money and wished him a nice night.

"I'm grateful," he said.

His response changed my life forever.

The entire way home, I was in awe. I'm grateful echoed inside me. When I got home, the tears fell hard. I had been hiding behind a mask of bitterness, negativity and fear to intentionally keep myself withdrawn from life and love - this realization burned, and at the same time, it was soothing.

All week I'd been in a pissy boohoo mood because my brakes started squeaking. And most of my life I focused on minor hiccups, wishing everything could be "different." But you have to be really specific when you say - "I just want my life to be different." Different doesn't mean better. It means different.

That night life was redefined. I was the one that needed help. And he gave it to me.

100% Grateful,

Jimmy

"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." ~ Johannes A. Gaertner