Living in Gratitude
I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend about the Dodgers in the playoffs, and it reminded me of a Homily I heard last year at Mass here in Pasadena right after the Dodgers lost their chances to get to the series.
[Father Tony] talked about his love and devotedness to the Dodgers and how he was so disappointed that they failed to get to the World Series…again!
They worked so hard to get in… then they lost it. “Darn Kershaw!”
Everybody in LA was thinking that way, right?
He continued to say, that “Baseball, like any sport, is entertainment and this loss was a one-time event where they just happened to fail and did not make it to the World Series this time.”
If you recall, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball in 2019.
He said, “As fans, shouldn’t be we be grateful for the 100 plus games they won (versus this one particular game that they lost)?”
He also said, “A lot of us tend to place a lot of importance on complaining about what we cannot control and complaining about things that don’t matter as much as the things that DO matter.”
“The things that DO matter, we should be grateful for.”
I live in gratitude every single day.
Every morning I say to God, “Thank you for this day.”
Every evening before I lay my head down to sleep, I say to God, “Thank you for all my blessings. You know what they are, but let me count them out loud.”
I think that whatever is going on “out there” is going to happen whether or not I disapprove of it or not. If life is difficult, it is also beautiful. For every area of darkness, there is also an area of light. I don’t ignore the negative; I choose not to focus on it.
I have been through the most difficult times you can imagine, and not all that long ago. I won’t bore you with the details here in this email. Only the closest friends and ‘Angels’ to me know how bad it was.
I share all this with you today to remind you that wherever you are in your life or your business right now — good, bad, or ugly — and, whatever is going on in the world ‘out there’, always remind yourself about who and what you have in your life that makes it all worthwhile. There is always good to be found in your life, right around you, if you look for it.
There is always something to be grateful for.
That is all for today. I am grateful for you.
