The gift of breathe-being alive; which would cancel everything else of my life. My limbs for all activity, and my ability to talk. Very grateful for my body. Peaceful weekend to all.☮️
Well, this is a hard question. I mean, I try not to take anything for granted, but of course I do.
So, maybe something like, my health and my ability to live around without too much pain, would be one.
And of course losing my friends and family would be devastating. And something that I do often take for granted, electricity! Flicking switches and turning things on without a thought. Like I said, I really try to not take anything for granted. I know how lucky I am and have been. 😁
When my life is going well,
it is only my Practice of gratitude
that keeps me from slipping into taking things for granted.
It is easy to count my blessings and gifts,
but when I am challenged
and feel overwhelmed by my life
I have to dig deeper.
When I do,
I always come back to the basics . . .
that I have air to breathe,
blood to pump my heart,
water and food to nourish my body . . .
to have a safe place in which to live,
that the sun rises every day,
that I am loved
and would be missed if I was gone.
In truth,
I don’t really take much for granted anymore . . .
I’ve lost everything
over and over again
throughout my life,
so I am well aware that it can happen.
Once that’s been broken in a person
I don’t think
it can ever be fully unbroken.
Gratefulness
always brings me back to the basics
once I’ve indulged myself in a few frills,
like being grateful I could make a heavenly soup,
or that I heard the flicker this morning,
or fell asleep to a lullabye of rain..
Perhaps I’d miss Life
which would look completely different
if breath,
blood,
and nourishment
were taken away . . .
perhaps not. ♥
I chuckled when I read this question because I thought of my mother-in-law. She was a very unique and interesting woman. She told me (at the tender age of 18) “If you are going to marry my son, you need to have your own wheels (car), a few bucks in your purse and preferably your own room!” For what it’s worth, I quoted my mother-in-law’s words to my own daughter when she was considering marriage.
Now, to three things I take for granted today,
1. my strength (It’s always been there but it took me years to discover it)
2. my willingness (For many years I was more willful than willing. I was “me oriented” not “we oriented.” Occasionally I still wrestle with it.)
3. my creature comforts (I think first of my air conditioning and my furnace. I had to replace the units recently and lived for several days without air conditioning. It totally sapped my strength. I think of all of the refugees of war, living in tents with no air and no heat and no guarantee that it will ever change.)
I found your mother-in-law’s quote interesting, esp knowing what you have written in the past about your ex-husband being an alcoholic. I wonder if that was her way of telling you not to marry him. Did you take any of her advice?
I don’t think she was telling me not to marry her son. She would have told any woman contemplating marriage the same thing. She was a business woman who left her son’s father when
her son was 5 years old. I think she just thought a woman should have that kind of freedom if she was married. I remember when I divorced my husband. Shortly after that, I was scheduled for my annual pap smear and my male doctor looked at me and said, you don’t know how many women have sat it that chair and were not able to do what you are doing. I’m old enough to have lived at a time when a woman couldn’t make a living wage. She couldn’t support herself. If she went to college, she could be a grade school or high school teacher, a nurse, airline hostess (only if she was single) and if she didn’t go to college, she could be a secretary, grocery checker, bank clerk, sales clerk unless she was pregnant and showing. That usually meant she lost her job at 4 or 5 months. If she was left handed, she couldn’t be a grocery checker or a telephone operator as all equipment was for right handed folks. If she was newly married and Roman Catholic, she couldn’t even get an interview. They didn’t want to train any one who might get pregnant and that was before we had the birth control pill. Basically a woman could not support herself! She needed to live with relatives or get married.
Joseph, I’ve got a million stories about her! She was my kids “fun Grandma.” and my Mom was their traditional Grandma. That said. Both my children loved both their Grandmas very much. 🙂
The point is not to take things for granted in the first place. I’m regularly aware of and grateful for very fundamental things in my life:
Clean water to drink and bathe in
Clean air to breathe
A home
Food
Love from and for my husband, children and friends
Employment that makes many of the other things possible
Good health
The list could go on. I would miss them all. I may move through a day without thinking consciously, “Oh, good thing that water’s clean!” but I do sincerely appreciate the entire system and all the labor that brings Nature’s bounty to my faucet. I don’t really take it for granted. I count on it, which to me is very different.
Hard to say, as I think I don’t really take much for granted. I live simply & am grateful for all my blessings.
However, if there is one thing I may take for granted, I guess it would be feeling good. I am currently suffering from a very vicious cold/flu bug. It has really put me down. I am tired of being “under the weather” & want to feel on top of my game again. I am sick of being sick!
I consider myself pretty healthy & do many, many things to support my good health. I try not to take my good health for granted, as I see suffering all around. My dad stressed to me that “good health is wealth”. This wisdom has always stuck with me.
It’s when I get “sick”, the point is driven home how blessed having good health is. 🙏🏻❤️
Happy Saturday All. 🍂🍁
So true, PKR. It surprises me how much I take my health for granted. When I get sick, nothing sounds better than to be rested and in to be in good health. 🩵
If I were to dare to prose everything then my false self would die and I would be the universe and I would miss nothing.
Thank you so much ☺️ now I can see happiness here and now .
If I were to lose everything I take for granted, I would most miss my ability to breathe freely, my ability to move my body freely, and the energy that I have to get out of bed and live my life. It seems that I do take the things that are most important to me for granted. Thank you for this question. 🩵
I’m not sure what I take for granted, seems like I always find out when it’s gone. Right now, recovering from a stomach bug with lingering effects, I miss the ability to digest food and sleep without stomach pain. Eating and just enjoying a feeling of fullness sounds like heaven, and I definitely took that for granted for a long time.
I really do not take anything for granted either. I watched a movie the other night about severe flooding causing a food shortage so what comes to mind for me is : food, water and shelter. In this last nor’easter I was grateful for a garage so I could protect my car from a tree falling on it.
Happy Saturday all – I am headed to an Irish festival in Worster, MA for the afternoon, irish sports, music, food and dance 🍀🎻
A neighbor called out a S.O.S for household goods to be given to a homeless family she will be renting to. That really made me think…what do I really need. It was a great wake up call to gratefulness of what I have and what can I give.
What a kind neighbor. Your post reminds me that I want to buy a bunch of stuff for the food bank. Their list of requests is so simple, it makes me sad to think people have a shortage of things like lotion and beans.
While I try not to take anything for granted, it’s the larger events in life that make you realize the things that are, indeed, taken for granted. One is being able to flush the toilet. I have been through many tropical storms and hurricanes, but when Hurricane Helene hit while we were living in WNC, it was different. Being on a well with no electricity meant no flushing toilet. No water to put in the back of the toilet to help it flush. And the stupid toilet was a push button – those are the worst!
Anyhow, I would miss a flushable toilet. Running water. And the ability to breathe on my own.
We have a well here also and I always remember my Dad saying about water in general – the need in case of a disaster to fill a bath tub or several gallon jugs of water.
We filled up bottles and jugs before the storm came so that we would have plenty to drink. And there was also water in the tub, but the plug did not seal all the way, so we lost most of it. We didn’t know it was bad because we had not taken any baths in that short first month there, only showers. We did use what was there for the dog’s water bowls and to clean ourselves up a bit, but it was gone pretty quickly. That house had lots of issues, but that’s another topic!
When you have a well and an electric pump (as we and most everyone out here in the hinterlands do) some drinking water and some source of water to flush the toilet, even if you scoop it out of the stock tank in winter! Your father was right, be prepared.
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Books, friendships and a basically sound constitution.
The gift of breathe-being alive; which would cancel everything else of my life. My limbs for all activity, and my ability to talk. Very grateful for my body. Peaceful weekend to all.☮️
Food, friendship, freedom, and refuge- I know, that’s 4🤷♀️
Well, this is a hard question. I mean, I try not to take anything for granted, but of course I do.
So, maybe something like, my health and my ability to live around without too much pain, would be one.
And of course losing my friends and family would be devastating. And something that I do often take for granted, electricity! Flicking switches and turning things on without a thought. Like I said, I really try to not take anything for granted. I know how lucky I am and have been. 😁
When my life is going well,
it is only my Practice of gratitude
that keeps me from slipping into taking things for granted.
It is easy to count my blessings and gifts,
but when I am challenged
and feel overwhelmed by my life
I have to dig deeper.
When I do,
I always come back to the basics . . .
that I have air to breathe,
blood to pump my heart,
water and food to nourish my body . . .
to have a safe place in which to live,
that the sun rises every day,
that I am loved
and would be missed if I was gone.
In truth,
I don’t really take much for granted anymore . . .
I’ve lost everything
over and over again
throughout my life,
so I am well aware that it can happen.
Once that’s been broken in a person
I don’t think
it can ever be fully unbroken.
Gratefulness
always brings me back to the basics
once I’ve indulged myself in a few frills,
like being grateful I could make a heavenly soup,
or that I heard the flicker this morning,
or fell asleep to a lullabye of rain..
Perhaps I’d miss Life
which would look completely different
if breath,
blood,
and nourishment
were taken away . . .
perhaps not. ♥
Sparrow, the word “perhaps” is a word to ponder!
♥️
A last paragraph to ponder on. Thank you dear Sparrow.
Free health care
Safe water to drink
Nutritious and safe food to eat
Ah, the Canadian health care system!
I chuckled when I read this question because I thought of my mother-in-law. She was a very unique and interesting woman. She told me (at the tender age of 18) “If you are going to marry my son, you need to have your own wheels (car), a few bucks in your purse and preferably your own room!” For what it’s worth, I quoted my mother-in-law’s words to my own daughter when she was considering marriage.
Now, to three things I take for granted today,
1. my strength (It’s always been there but it took me years to discover it)
2. my willingness (For many years I was more willful than willing. I was “me oriented” not “we oriented.” Occasionally I still wrestle with it.)
3. my creature comforts (I think first of my air conditioning and my furnace. I had to replace the units recently and lived for several days without air conditioning. It totally sapped my strength. I think of all of the refugees of war, living in tents with no air and no heat and no guarantee that it will ever change.)
I found your mother-in-law’s quote interesting, esp knowing what you have written in the past about your ex-husband being an alcoholic. I wonder if that was her way of telling you not to marry him. Did you take any of her advice?
I don’t think she was telling me not to marry her son. She would have told any woman contemplating marriage the same thing. She was a business woman who left her son’s father when
her son was 5 years old. I think she just thought a woman should have that kind of freedom if she was married. I remember when I divorced my husband. Shortly after that, I was scheduled for my annual pap smear and my male doctor looked at me and said, you don’t know how many women have sat it that chair and were not able to do what you are doing. I’m old enough to have lived at a time when a woman couldn’t make a living wage. She couldn’t support herself. If she went to college, she could be a grade school or high school teacher, a nurse, airline hostess (only if she was single) and if she didn’t go to college, she could be a secretary, grocery checker, bank clerk, sales clerk unless she was pregnant and showing. That usually meant she lost her job at 4 or 5 months. If she was left handed, she couldn’t be a grocery checker or a telephone operator as all equipment was for right handed folks. If she was newly married and Roman Catholic, she couldn’t even get an interview. They didn’t want to train any one who might get pregnant and that was before we had the birth control pill. Basically a woman could not support herself! She needed to live with relatives or get married.
she was a wise woman, just as you are 🙂
I don’t know about wise but willing, yes!
I chuckled reading about your mother-in-law, Carol Ann. Sounds like someone I would enjoy a discourse with!
Joseph, I’ve got a million stories about her! She was my kids “fun Grandma.” and my Mom was their traditional Grandma. That said. Both my children loved both their Grandmas very much. 🙂
The point is not to take things for granted in the first place. I’m regularly aware of and grateful for very fundamental things in my life:
Clean water to drink and bathe in
Clean air to breathe
A home
Food
Love from and for my husband, children and friends
Employment that makes many of the other things possible
Good health
The list could go on. I would miss them all. I may move through a day without thinking consciously, “Oh, good thing that water’s clean!” but I do sincerely appreciate the entire system and all the labor that brings Nature’s bounty to my faucet. I don’t really take it for granted. I count on it, which to me is very different.
I feel this way as well,
dear Barb . . .
I struggled a bit with the Question
because of this. ♥
Hard to say, as I think I don’t really take much for granted. I live simply & am grateful for all my blessings.
However, if there is one thing I may take for granted, I guess it would be feeling good. I am currently suffering from a very vicious cold/flu bug. It has really put me down. I am tired of being “under the weather” & want to feel on top of my game again. I am sick of being sick!
I consider myself pretty healthy & do many, many things to support my good health. I try not to take my good health for granted, as I see suffering all around. My dad stressed to me that “good health is wealth”. This wisdom has always stuck with me.
It’s when I get “sick”, the point is driven home how blessed having good health is. 🙏🏻❤️
Happy Saturday All. 🍂🍁
I hope you feel better soon PKR – wishing you a speedy recovery.
So true, PKR. It surprises me how much I take my health for granted. When I get sick, nothing sounds better than to be rested and in to be in good health. 🩵
If I were to dare to prose everything then my false self would die and I would be the universe and I would miss nothing.
Thank you so much ☺️ now I can see happiness here and now .
If I were to lose everything I take for granted, I would most miss my ability to breathe freely, my ability to move my body freely, and the energy that I have to get out of bed and live my life. It seems that I do take the things that are most important to me for granted. Thank you for this question. 🩵
I’m not sure what I take for granted, seems like I always find out when it’s gone. Right now, recovering from a stomach bug with lingering effects, I miss the ability to digest food and sleep without stomach pain. Eating and just enjoying a feeling of fullness sounds like heaven, and I definitely took that for granted for a long time.
Wishing you a speedy recovery Drea.
Thank you Michele.
May you be able to eat and just enjoy the feeling of fullness soon dear Drea.
Thank you Joseph.
Ugh, I know the feeling. Hope you feel better soon and can eat a meal without a care in the world. 😁
Thank you Charlie.
Hope your stomach pain will be healing and that you will be back to health and well being soon, dear Drea.
Thank you Ose.
I know the feeling,
dear Drea . . .
may you be back to your healthy, happy self
soon. ♥
Thank you Sparrow.
Drea, Take care, do a body scan, relax and release. Sending loving energy your way.
Thank you so much Carol ❤️.
Drea, hope you get rid of that stomach bug & feel better soon. Sending you a hug & healthy wishes. 🤗❤️🙏🏻
Thank you dear PKR ❤️.
So sorry to hear this, Drea. Please be extra gentle with yourself and allow your body all the time it needs.
Thank you deeply, Mary ❤️.
♥️
I really do not take anything for granted either. I watched a movie the other night about severe flooding causing a food shortage so what comes to mind for me is : food, water and shelter. In this last nor’easter I was grateful for a garage so I could protect my car from a tree falling on it.
Happy Saturday all – I am headed to an Irish festival in Worster, MA for the afternoon, irish sports, music, food and dance 🍀🎻
Have fun at your Irish festival – I really miss my Monday Night Irish Dancing – we had such fun.
I love reading about the many activities you engage in, Robin! Sounds as if you lead a full and enjoyable life.
Thanks Barb!🌞 I enjoy reading your posts as well and feel like you have a full life with a lots of Joy too ✨
Happy Saturday Robin Ann, that festival sounds like a lot of fun!
A neighbor called out a S.O.S for household goods to be given to a homeless family she will be renting to. That really made me think…what do I really need. It was a great wake up call to gratefulness of what I have and what can I give.
What a kind neighbor. Your post reminds me that I want to buy a bunch of stuff for the food bank. Their list of requests is so simple, it makes me sad to think people have a shortage of things like lotion and beans.
Yram, appreciating simpler pleasures makes me grateful for what I already have. Dopamine hunting is when I become greedy.
While I try not to take anything for granted, it’s the larger events in life that make you realize the things that are, indeed, taken for granted. One is being able to flush the toilet. I have been through many tropical storms and hurricanes, but when Hurricane Helene hit while we were living in WNC, it was different. Being on a well with no electricity meant no flushing toilet. No water to put in the back of the toilet to help it flush. And the stupid toilet was a push button – those are the worst!
Anyhow, I would miss a flushable toilet. Running water. And the ability to breathe on my own.
We have a well here also and I always remember my Dad saying about water in general – the need in case of a disaster to fill a bath tub or several gallon jugs of water.
We filled up bottles and jugs before the storm came so that we would have plenty to drink. And there was also water in the tub, but the plug did not seal all the way, so we lost most of it. We didn’t know it was bad because we had not taken any baths in that short first month there, only showers. We did use what was there for the dog’s water bowls and to clean ourselves up a bit, but it was gone pretty quickly. That house had lots of issues, but that’s another topic!
When you have a well and an electric pump (as we and most everyone out here in the hinterlands do) some drinking water and some source of water to flush the toilet, even if you scoop it out of the stock tank in winter! Your father was right, be prepared.
I’ll have to remember that,
dear Robin Ann.
Thank you. ♥
ps. I am on a well too.