No matter whom you are or what you do, there are days when life just grabs you by the throat and screams, PAY ATTENTION!
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I had one of those days recently. It’s no exaggeration to say that I barely escaped a brush with death. As dramatic as that may sound, I want to share much more than the story with you… because the best part of this experience arrived long after the dust settled.
It started a few weeks ago…
I was travelling along the highway at about 80km/hour, following behind a big-rig truck with a backhoe loaded on it.
Suddenly, I heard a tremendous noise – and in the blink of an eye, huge chunks of metal and cement came flying at me!
The truck and its load were too tall for the overpass. The backhoe had collided with a bridge and they both shattered into pieces.
In an instant, I felt like I was in a movie! Debris was flying in every direction… and in the next moment, my windshield was splattered with greasy hydraulic fluid. I flipped on the wipers but they just smeared the grease around. I couldn’t see ahead!
A glance in my rear-view mirror told me that cars were fast approaching from behind, so I didn’t dare stomp on the brakes. But what was going on ahead of me?
Had the truck stopped? Were there chunks of backhoe and bridge in my path? I had no way to tell!
Only my angels know how I made it from the center lane to the side of the highway without the benefit of sight. Fortunately, no one was injured in the chaos. Whew! (My poor car is another story… but that’s not the story I really care about.)
In the hours and days that followed, you might say I entered into an altered state of consciousness. Not the intoxicated kind, but a surreal one… a time of heightened insight.
Once the shock wore off, I felt incredibly blessed to be alive! I was acutely aware of the fragility of life, and that it can vanish in a heartbeat. No one knows how much time we have left, so no day is “just another day”… every single one is special.
I thought about the ritual I share with my eight-year-old grandson, where we list three things we’re grateful for at the end of the day, and I felt my sense of gratitude swell like never before.
To share just a few of the countless thoughts I had:
- I am grateful to see the sparkle in my grandsons’ eyes, and savour their light and expressiveness…
- And I am grateful to have my daughter and her family within driving distance; and a son who lives close to my heart.
- I am blessed to have my mother still with me, after all these years; and to genuinely enjoy my relationships with my sister, brothers, cousins and other family members.
- I am grateful to live in a home that delivers “living art” outside my window every day.
- And I’m absolutely thrilled with the fascinating and heartwarming people I share my life with.
- I am deeply grateful for my love of reading and the wisdom of the authors whose writing I absorb.
- And I am delighted with my sharp senses, which flood my experiences with color and flavor and feeling.
- And – lucky me! – I am blessed with a strong, healthy, pain-free body that lets me explore and enjoy the world every day.
But most of all, I am grateful for my ever-present sense of gratitude, which enriches my life with a deep sense of meaning and appreciation.
Because without that… you don’t have much at all!
Something to consider:
Gratitude is like an internal muscle. We have to exercise it in order to feel its power. And when we do… well, it can transform any moment from dull to spectacular.
One of my favourite ways to elevate my sense of gratitude is an app! There are dozens of them available; I check in with the Gratitude Journal [2](for iPhone) every day. Try it; you’ll be amazed at how easily this simple practice will change your life for the better.
When it comes to thinking about what you’re grateful for, Tim Saunders (in his book, Today We Are Rich) takes the POET approach: People, Opportunities, Experiences and Things. He wrote,
I put People first because taking note of their greatness in your life feeds your confidence in others. I put Things last because they cause us to focus on material items that can either be in short supply or be taken away entirely.
What a genius way to think about our blessings!
Gratitude is the only way to feel rich. And there are so many elements that enrich our lives! So I invite you to take a few minutes to assess your life’s *real* net worth.
People: ____________________________________________
Opportunities: ______________________________________
Experiences: ________________________________________
Things: ____________________________________________
See? There’s POETry in all of us! And the more we reflect on it, the more poetic life becomes.
Margaret Page