Pondering over Blessings

Moving along on the process of thinking for those who are intrinsically blessed with an interest in pondering, I would like to add that it's marvelous how much good can it do to you in the moments of despair and hopelessness.

Someone very close to my heart shared her self-reflection with me the other day. The point of significance in her statement was how much she began to feel thankful once she began to ponder over the many aspects, big ones and minute, of her life's past and present. And it all started as she began to ask herself "Why?" Why did her house's geyser crashed a week ago amid the height of the winter season? Why was she deprived of an essential modern mode of transportation, a car, when she could never imagined living without it? and perhaps the bigger questions for instance, Why did her father die while she was only 20?

But now, having sustained the deprivation of the above, she began to feel the inestimable value of these possessions. She had never before imagined of living without them and when the time came, she dearly missed them but still lived through, and lived through with courage, hope, and prayers. She began to become increasingly thankful to her Sustainer as she started to re-evaluate her past, hardships that she faced, and the momentous time that she spent when she had all those blessings. And now, as she thinks further, she feels thankful of being able to enjoy her current possessions: her family, her studies, and most of all, her love.

Moreover, she was a kind of person, let me tell you from my experience, who previously used to abhor the concept of self-reflection. But now with it, she was able to establish reasons for the happenings, learn lessons from her experiences, and develop humility in her personality. I see this to be true for myself as well. Every time I recall back the academic accolades, financial rewards, and other awards bestowed upon me, I begin to feel increasingly humbled and gratified. "It's all in the mind," they say, that can make or break your concept of joy. The happiest ones are indeed those who "make the best of everything they have" and not those who have the "best of everything."

But I must not forget those times in life when I might have felt that I do not have anything to be thankful for. For then too, someone had most accurately put: that if you have "Got nothing to be thankful for? Check your pulse." Thus you just need a knock on the right one of your brain's many doors.

So with such marvels of our mind in view, I should never hesitate to put my mind to work but actually haste towards launching an intellectual thought process, whenever I am feeling bored or unproductive. Because, indeed, "Mind is a terrible thing to waste," Forest Long, 1971.