There Is Always Something To Write Home About

I'm the one in glasses

There are times you neither feel high nor low. You are neither excited nor depressed. In those moments, you are angry for nothing; and yet you feel grateful for nothing. In those moments, you are just there, living your life. Someone asks how you’re doing and you mutter a non-excited ‘fine’. in those moments, it seems there’s nothing exciting to write home about.

That is the state of our lives most of the time. Of course, there are moments when our emotions get riled up, when we feel overwhelmed with emotions of love, hatred, anger, happiness and all that. But for most of the time, we are just existing, carrying out our routine, continuing with the basic activities that make us who we are.

Today is one of those moments for me. When I first read @tojukaka’s #gratitudeday post for today, I realised I wasn’t as excited as he was. I could think of nothing special to be grateful of. I had a bout of overflowing gratitude on Monday: #ULOG | A Million Reasons To Be Grateful. But that was Monday; today, I am just living my normal life.

A Million Things To Be Grateful For

As I explored the other posts, I realised something very important. While I was going through the other #gratitudeday posts by other participants, I came across something from @julietisrael. In her introduction, she said the following:

There are many things we take for granted. Not because we don’t care, but because we got so used to having those things. (sic)

Those lines hit me like a tornado coming at 100 M/ph. I was struck by the depth of those words and had to take a moment to reflect. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that I had a lot to be grateful for. In fact, I have a million things to be gareftul for. I will talk about three in this post.

1. The Gift Of Life

I am alive! I am living. I am breathing. I can sit at my desk in my one room apartment and clack away at my laptop. I can tell of how ‘normal’ I feel right now. I can read blogs and draw insights. I can participate in @tojukaka’s wonderful initiative. There’s only one word for it: LIfe!

The gift of life is very precious to me. Of course, there are a lot of things that makes life meaningful but let’s take this one at a time. For now, we are talking about life, about the fact that we share in the existence of the now and the prospect of the future. We can make plans, show and receive love, create and share happiness, dream of wonderful stuff and even experience pain.

When I reflect on the many people that have lost their lives this year alone, I am humbled. A friend lost her father two weeks ago. Another friend lost her grandmother only last week. And these are from people I know. How much more the deaths that occur on the daily? Gray, you’ve got something to be grateful for. You’ve got something to write home about. And that leads to the second point.

2. The Gift Of Family

Today is the birthday of a friend’s brother. She took out time to write some things about her brother. Something struck me. She said:

Blood isn’t always family and family isn't always blood but you are both, through and through.

Did you get that? Blood isn’t always family There’s a lot of insight in those words and they stem from what a family should mean. @lisaliebeslust writes about family once in a while. Based on the wonderful insights in her posts, I define family as:

A person or group of people that love, value, support and understand you as a person regardless of your flaws.

For me, those four (love, value, support and understanding) are very important to defining family. Anyone who expresses those four things can be regarded as my family. You see, family transcends biology. It is more about the bond and less about the blood. And yes, I do have a family.

Even while I live my ‘normal’ life, there are people who often put a smile on my face. These people are important to me; their opinion and support have played a significant role in shaping who I am today. No matter how ‘normal’ or exciting or frustrating my life is, these people are always there to hold my hand and together we keep matching forward.

I am grateful for these people. Even more, I am grateful that my biological family is also my family in this sense. We have our many flaws and disagreements but they always stand by me.

3. The Gift Of Writing

This is becoming a rather long essay but bear with me. Sometimes, when I have thoughts like this, I find it easy to express them. I do not claim to be the best writer; but I’ve enjoy great compliments from those who read my blog. They like my writing style, they like my choice of words, they like the writer that I am.

I can tell you a story of how I started writing. I can give you tale highlighting the many challenges I’ve had and how overcoming them made me a better writer. I can talked about what motivates to to write and to improve my writing skills. But at the end of it all, I must concede that writing is a gift. I was born with it. I can use it, abuse it, misuse it or even deny it. It doesn't change the fact that I am gifted in the area of writing.

This is something to be grateful for. When I joined Steemit, I didn’t have the necessary connection to stay afloat. Even now, I suck at social interactions. I prefer to remain in the shadows, coming out only when I feel very comfortable and valued. The only thing I had was my writing skills. I applied for contests and organisers were drawn by my writing.

These days, I have been able to make a few friends, mostly from the writing community. But I still feel grateful for the gift I didn’t pay for. I am grateful for the gift of writing.

Final Words

If you read this far, then you have my undying gratitude. This essay has meaning only when it impacts something to the reader. I hope that you have gained something. If you have, please, feel free to share with me in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading

Blessings