Hello Gratitude

Recently, I found myself in a position many people find terrifying nowadays. I lost my phone…

For the past months I have been, beseeching, moaning and groaning about my useless phone. I had to and needed to get rid of my phone. I needed a new one that would do all that I wanted it to do, in the fastest and most efficient manner.

I would sometimes forget to complain about the phone, because I was complaining about my laptop. That too needed to go. It just was not working. Neither of them brought me a sense of satisfaction.

When I had just gotten my phone, I was excited by it newness. It was something to be proud about. I had always wanted to buy one like it and now I had it.

However, the euphoria lasted until I noticed all the problems I had not noted on the day of purchase. The space was not enough for me to do anything much; it wasn’t like my old phone; I which I still had my old phone. Those complaints eventually became, I wish I had a new phone. Something bigger and better. Something more my style.

There was nothing that could console me. Some of my daily mantras became: I need a new phone or I hate this useless phone.

Today instead of me breaking up with my phone, it broke up with me. It decided it was tiad of all my complaining and chose to rest in a spot where I could never retrieve it. And I had to be fine with it.

After all I had complained bitterly about the phone and I was desperate to get rid of it.

In coming to terms with my leading role in the loss of the phone, I encountered gratitude. I realized that the phone had been very useful to me and had provided me with good dependable service. However, I had been too busy focusing on its fault to truly recognize this.

Sometimes we become so fixated on the problems that we never find a solution. When we choose to be ignorant of our blessings they feel unwelcome, unappreciated and so, decide to leave us and find a more congenial host.

That taxi ride from halfway tree to Mona did not only mean the breaking of ties with my phone but also a reintroduction to gratitude.

Without the phone, I could focus on important tasks and not be distracted by what was on it. I could part with something I saw as valuable, because I realized that nothing was ever meant to stay with us forever. our world and the things in it are transient.

So I chose to focus on some of the good that came with this loss. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you are not a slave to the things you own, nor paralyzed by their loss, but can adequately function in spite of their usefulness.

So in losing the phone, an experience that should have been stressful, I was calm and very accepting and even a little happy. I had gotten what I had wanted. And being upset or feeling sorry for my situation would have been a bit hypocritical. So I learnt it was important to be honest with yourself and others.

We all have stories of being introduced to gratitude; for some the introduction is more painful than for others. We are our best when we allow those “difficult times” and situations to edify and uplift. When we choose to be grateful “in spite of” instead of “because…”

Therefore, while most of those I told were feeling sorry for me, saying, “oh poor thing. I could never!” I was grateful that I had had the phone and what it allowed me to do. I was also grateful because I knew that I would eventually get another one. I am more prepared to be grateful when I did get it by being thank that I will, although I have not seen it yet.

When a change seems terrifying and unimaginable we need to remember that there have been many changes before that were terrifying that we survived and conquered. Gratitude should not be shown only when things are great for us but more so when things seem to be at their worst. That is when we learn, grow and change.