On Days When Nothing Feels Right, Be Grateful For:

blessed

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blessed 〰️

1. Sleeping in a bed.
What a luxury it is to crawl into your bed at the end of the day and rest your body under those sheets that—even if just momentarily—shield you from the whole world. The dignity of being able to stretch your limbs in a space that’s rightfully yours, knowing you’ll soon fall asleep and the world, for now, is paused, is something we so often overlook.

2. Walking.
The freedom of having feet that carry you through the world is real. Even if your dreams are being held prisoner by the harshness of reality, your feet can still take you places. You can get out of bed, walk yourself to the bathroom, put on your shoes.
Have you ever stopped to think how different life is for those who don’t have this blessing?
This not-so-little blessing that receives the littlest recognition from us.
Ariel traded her voice—her fins—for the very thing you never acknowledge: legs.

3. Knowing who you are and where you come from.
One day, I paused and appreciated the revelation that I know who my parents are. I know what country we come from. There are people who don’t.
Can you imagine looking into the mirror, wondering where your eyes came from? Who you once belonged to? Where?
Appreciate that while you may feel lost in so many areas, you still have anchors.
Some people are floating—craving even the slightest bit of the direction you take for granted.

4. Being able to feel.
Your ability to feel hurt is a blessing in its own way.
There are people who live life on mute.
They might not feel the pain that burns your heart and stings your eyes—but they also don’t feel joy. They don’t know what it’s like for your smile to reach your eyes.
They don’t know what it feels like to love and be loved.
They can’t feel laughter, longing, passion, pride... nothing.
I’ll take pain, shame, heartbreak—just to be able to feel everything else.

5. Being able to appreciate little things.
Your first cup of coffee.
Every night, I go to bed excited to wake up and have my iced coffee. A simple pleasure that never disappoints.
Painting your nails a color you like—every time you look at your hands, you smile.
How can something so small make you feel an emotion so huge?

6. Having dreams.
Even if they never come true.
Just having something you want to achieve, something you pray for—that’s a blessing.
To want is to live. It’s purpose. It’s what keeps you going.
It’s what reminds you what all of this is really for, when you really need reminding.
It’s what makes you different.
Having a dream—especially one that hasn’t yet come true—is having a reason to live, to keep going, to hold on to the next day.

7. Being loved.
Whether it’s in the right way or the wrong way, whether your heart feels it or not—just knowing at least one person out there loves you is a blessing.
So many people live and die soundlessly, with no traces behind.
If even one person would remember you if you were gone, if one person would feel your absence more loudly than your presence—you are richer than most.
Now imagine how lucky you are if you have more than one.

Train your soul to notice the daily blessings we’ve gotten so accustomed to, we’ve become numb to their profoundness—to their importance and impact on our lives.
Train your mind to become aware of them again. To feel their presence—strongly, and in the way they deserve.

Because it’s in gratitude that we find real comfort, real contentment.

The things we chase our entire lives, believing that once we attain them we’ll be happy—are often things we already have.
We’re just conditioned to ignore them. Maybe we’ve grown entitled, thinking they’re normal.
But what we call “normal” is someone else’s dream.
Our everyday life—our smallest routines—are someone’s greatest aspiration.

Thank you, God
—for giving me so much, even when I do so little to deserve it.
—for blessing me, out of everyone in this whole world.
—for showering me with love that’s within reach, even when I keep searching for it far away.
—for being kind to me, even when I’m cruel to myself.
—for forgiving me, even when I continue to sin.
—for never testing me by taking away the blessings I forget to notice.

I’m so lucky.
We’re so lucky.