I once had the pleasure and opportunity to live in Greece for a full two years. One day, I met some people who were not Greek. They were “Gypsies.” They lived in a beautiful, very large home with marble floors and chandeliers. It was exquisite. They had a Mercedes and a BMW. They were obviously well off. They had more than 10 children, each one disfigured horrifically in some unique way.
Every day they would drive each of the children to a different spot somewhere in Athens and drop them off for the day to beg. At the end of the day, they would pick up these children and bring them home and feed them and put them to sleep to wake up the next day and do it all over again. It was a business. The parents were the ones who disfigured their children. It horrified me. I had never heard of such a thing. I couldn’t believe it was true.
Imagine being one of these children, born perfectly healthy and beautiful, raised to a certain age only to have your legs and arms cut from your body or your eyes burned out of your head, or your face and body marked and scarred by acid. I was blown away.
Each day we wake up and most of us are in the habit of focusing on what is going wrong in our lives, what is challenging us, causing us problems, and what is causing us stress.
Reminder to self: Remember that your lot in life could be so much worse. Remember your blessings and everything you have to be grateful for every single day. Start the day by thinking of all the things going RIGHT in your life and being grateful for the unique problems and challenges you have, realizing that they are actually blessings in disguise, and NOTHING like what some people are going through in THEIR life journey.
Today’s challenge for myself: Today, I will make a list of EVERYTHING I have to be grateful for in my life. I will reflect on this list throughout the day, and add to it as necessary.
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Remember: Mindset matters. Character counts. That which we choose to consistently focus on is what EXPANDS in our lives. WE CREATE our personal realities.