Simple Blessings
How Learning to Recognize Them Enriches Every Day
I didn’t think I’d have any downtime to post this week during my trip, but surprisingly here I am. My intention was to find something brief that reminds us of our many blessings, despite the worries and problems that often plague our lives. The poem below my personal thoughts, fits the bill.
As I’ve grown older and matured in ways I didn’t know I needed to, my appreciation for simpler things has expanded. I believe it’s due to the healing after so many years in a destructive relationship.
Life becomes something to survive when you’re confronted with daily verbal abuse. Especially when it comes from within your own home.
Home is supposed to be a refuge, the place we feel safest. That familiarity should bring comfort, whether it’s our favorite chair, a beloved pet greeting us at the door, or a kitchen made cozier by precious family heirlooms.
When that security is shattered by someone else’s brokenness, it becomes a living hell (with an occasional reprieve here and there.) You constantly walk on eggshells, choosing your words carefully, and waiting for the next assault. Over time it numbs you to the point that it’s hard to feel anything. And you stop seeing the world around you and all the amazing beauty it possesses.
It pains me to think of what I missed for two decades. Not only the bigger blessings but also the many small ones.
Since my reawakening (as I like to call it) in 2014, I’ve learned to notice who and what surrounds me. It was like my senses came back to life, and everything became clearer and more intense. My thinking had greater clarity, and my spirit was filled with peace.
Seeing a gorgeous sunset as a blessing and not just a pretty sight helps us connect with the wonders of our world. Noticing someone’s work-hewn hands reminds us of our shared humanity. Relishing a preferred childhood food or humming along to a favorite song recalls our personal histories.
Just like the present day, those histories are filled with a combination of positives and negatives. Life is both wonderful and sorrowful at times, as we all know. But, if we strive to recognize the grandeur of the physical world and appreciate the decency of common people like ourselves, we can find the inherent goodness that being alive offers.
Thanksgiving
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.
Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
And conquers if we let it.
There's not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past's wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.
Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.
We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o'er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus.