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The old button from the Environmental Club days. It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!
I thought it would be good to take a pause today, and to get back to one of the fundamental things that seems to me more and more important the older I get, which is to take a moment to appreciate life’s blessings. To be thankful for the positives in this delicate balance that we know of as life.
Gratitude indeed seems more and more important to me, the older I get. In fact, it seems urgent to remember to feel simple gratitude for everything. We get so wrapped up in our lives sometimes, and too often, define our lives by what we do not have, and by what we still strive to obtain. Sadly, many of us look at life in that way, as a seemingly never-ending journey to try and obtain more and more and more. Here in what is known as our mostly affluent western society, that often is translated into a blind pursuit for more and more material things.
Life is more than that, however. It might sound like a cliché to say that, but it is true. I believe indeed that there is more to life than simply making as much money as possible, and then surrounding ourselves on all sides with a wall of material wealth, to effectively close ourselves off from the rest of the world.
When I look at my life now, I recognize that it is not perfect. However, it is important to remember to be thankful for some things. My son, who to me, embodies the future. He is a good person, and that is the most important thing to me. That is a sliver of hope for the future, knowing that, yes, there are still decent people out there in the future. He makes me happy, and I feel most blessed for his presence in my life.
Also, I feel blessed for my family, my girlfriend, and my friends, and feel blessed for all of the things that have helped me to reach this point in my life. That includes pretty much all of the experiences, both good and bad, since even bad experiences are, nonetheless, human experiences, as well as teachers. Nothing teaches you as thoroughly as having to deal with painful lessons and/or mistakes.
Everyone is different, yet on so many levels, we are also the same. There was a video that I just saw earlier today, which was beautiful and thought provoking. It was from a few decades ago, back when space exploration was relatively new, and still held the power to fascinate the public imagination. The guy who made the video is an astronaut, and he was understandably in awe of being witness to going around the world in about one and a half hours. He saw various parts of the world, including his own corner of it, and he saw well over one hundred sunrises and sunsets in his ten days up in space.
This video was pretty powerful, and so it seemed like something worth sharing here. I recommend it, so please click on the title and/or link below:
The Most Beautiful Speech I Ever Heard - David Hoffman
https://youtu.be/zmHrnKY6crE
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