Why Am I Grateful? - a podcast by Ema Apenu II

“No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.” - Mulan

Why am I Grateful?

I’m alive… and in this moment, I exist.

All my distractions, pressures, worries, and excitements, exist either in my past, or I anticipate them in my future, but none exists in this moment.

But this moment is unique. I will not experience it again. So why?

Because this feeling, being grateful, encourages the notion that I can change everything. All I need to do, to be able to do this, is choose how I want to feel about anything.

Realise that the meaning I give to what happens is what makes what happens happen. This realisation ensures I have my awareness of choice. To choose how I want to happen; to feel what I want to be.

So, I’m alive and in this moment, I exist. For this alone, I must be grateful.

In this moment, I realise and embrace fully how fortunate I am to be alive, and how trivial all the things I worry about are when compared to the having the opportunity to BE!

Because being alive is the foundation. Without life there is no creating. There is no opportunity to right my wrongs and improve character. Being alive, being here, now, avails the opportunity to create the kind of future I desire. And a chance to be one deserving of that future.

Of course, there’s my health and wellbeing, my family, friends, and enemies if I have any. There’s also wisdom, wealth, and opportunities. There’s a-lot to be grateful for.

It is said that a house built on a solid foundation can withstand torments from all seasons.

To be grateful to experience this moment, for the opportunity to experience it, to partake in all it offers and observe all the nuances that it comprises.

When I embrace fully each moment, I find the motivation to sustain this feeling of gratitude. And when I do that, I begin to design my present by looking to the future, deciding on how I want to feel when new moments arrive.

I consider what activities I can engage in to ensure this feeling stays. I do this so this feeling I feel carries over from moment to moment. I do this because I want this to become my reality.

Its not about being deceptively blissful; not about shrouding or suppressing miseries; far from it.

I acknowledge all my challenges, but when I feel grateful for life itself, I can choose now not to dwell on them. I can choose not to allow them to define me.

That’s why I choose to be grateful, so I can be free…

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