Stress induced writers block. That is always how it begins. First, I have a bad day and instead of going home and doing what would be healthy and write. I let myself become consumed in my frustration only preventing my art, to be the release I need. Soon enough, the writing withdraws sets in and now I am left with a feeling of emptiness and stress. Stress builds and it soon takes the ugly form of letting the mess in my mind pour out into my life. I feel like nothing is going right.
Then, I wallow in a moment of self-pity that soon turns to guilt because while I am sitting here complaining about receiving a parking ticket, when there are people who can’t even afford to take the bus. While I’m fussing over losing my hair, there are cancer patients who have just lost all theirs. At the moment that I feel unhappy with my social life, someone has left a note behind to their family explaining why bullying and lack of friends has led them to death by their own hands. As I look through my closet at my old shirts and decide what new ones I should buy, a poor family riffles through bins at a local Goodwill or St Vincent’s looking for the most discounted pair of socks they can afford. I ponder the things that I just take for granted.

However, I have come to realize that everything you think you would like to change in your life, are the very things to be grateful for. You see, you may not always love your job with a burning passion, but never the less, it is exactly that, a job. It is a steady source of income that prevents you from sleeping on the streets and supplies you with food to nourish your body. Not only that, but because you have a job, you are privileged enough to purchase hair care products and buy nice clothes that you wear out to events with your friends. You have so many things to be grateful for, there is always someone else in a situation that is less desirable than yours. If you ever catch yourself feeling sorry for yourself and your current circumstances, consider volunteering your time at an orphanage or visit a children’s hospital and you’ll be surprise by the gift you receive.
A few months back, I decided that for everything I found to complain about in my life, I must find a positive to that negative. I don’t want to ever allow myself to become so shallow and high on a pedestal that I forget what a gift it is to have the life that I’m living. Yes, I have my days where things don’t go the way I want them to. Then, I have to remember that the tantrum I am throwing on the inside is simply that, a tantrum. A ridiculous reaction and over dramatized version of how an adult should be responding to what I might consider a “tragedy.” Exactly what is a tragedy though?
Receiving a parking ticket is not a tragedy, it is an inconvenience. My family being savagely murdered on the other hand is indeed a tragedy. An ideal client not coming on board my coaching program, is not a calamity, it is a disappointment. Living in Chad the poorest country in the world where not having enough food and water is a way of life, that’s a tragedy.
It’s sad yet true how much in our lives we have such little appreciation for. Do you think Bill Gates gets excited if he receives a $10,000 check in the mail? Probably not. Would you? Absolutely! Just because something may not be a lot in comparison to what you currently have should not diminish the value it holds.

I challenge you all to this next statement. Wake up every morning with a thank you to God for giving you another day. Appreciate the things that to you may seem little, because to someone else, they may be huge. Cherish the life you have, the day you were given, and the misfortunes you encounter, because what may be a “tragedy” to you, could be a blessing to someone else.


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