The subject came up after I mentioned that I've been going to the hospital every evening for the last week visiting a good friend who's having serious medical problems. The strange part of my friend's illness is that the doctors are mystified about what's going on. And one reason they are mystified is that they can't do certain kinds of diagnoses because the chemicals they need for the diagnostic procedure would have a negative effect on other organs in her body. So they're having to be detectives to figure out what's going on without the tools they normally rely on.
And while they're forced to take their time to figure out how to help she's continuing to lose weight and undergo the stress of being away from the two teenage children she's supporting and deal with the other financial obligations she has to keep up with. Fortunately, her employer is keeping her on the payroll while she's ill. Plus she has a large circle of friends from her church who visit her and help as much as they can.
As my friend and I were talking I mentioned that this person has never smoked, used drugs, or drunk alcohol, but she is suffering from this strange illness. While at the same time, we know addicts and alcoholics who've trashed their bodies all their lives and have done very little positive but continue to enjoy good health.
And I guess that's where the subject of gratitude came up for us. Because quite often bad things happen to really good people, people who are helpful and kind to others. Yet many among us who live like heathens and treat our bodies like trash cans skip along merrily without a care in the world.
And when we reflect on this we realize that the universe is not evenhanded as it deals with us humans. We all know people who went to school and graduated with honors who later turned out to be abysmal failures. And many of us know alcoholics and drug addicts who turned out to be quite successful.
And that's probably where gratitude came up. Because we realize that the universe doesn't hand out results evenly. We all must be grateful for the good things that happen in our life and try to accept when we face serious issues.
It helps us to maintain our gratitude when we can live in the moment and appreciate what we have right now. Because many of us alcoholics and addicts know that we have much better lives than we deserve, considering the time we wasted doing self-centered and unproductive things.
So perhaps we should wrap ourselves in gratitude and pray for those who face challenges.
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