I Don't Want To Take Anything For Granted

As much as I try to be thankful for things in life, I look back and see how I’ve failed. It is so easy to take things for granted. To expect them.

When we sold our house last summer and ended up temporarily in an apartment, I saw how I missed things that I’d taken for granted. I missed having a back yard, having walls with no sounds from other people coming from behind them. I missed having a garage to park my car in and out of the sun.  I missed space. Space for an extra fridge, space for extra furniture, space to cook, space to stretch out….just space!

It’s the same with our health. When we get sick, we miss being well and realize how thankful we really are for it.  Whenever I see someone in a wheelchair, I think about how thankful I am that I can walk. Something I take for granted every day. I don’t think about it when I go up and down the stairs or hop into my car. But thankful, I am.

I don’t want to take anything for granted. I don’t want to have regrets or miss things in my life that I assumed would always be there for me. And I’m learning that NOTHING will always be there for me!  Health comes and goes. Things come and go. People come – and – they go.

We are an unthankful people. And no matter how hard we try, I think we always will be. There will be spurts of thankfulness. Spurts of gratitude and awareness of what we have and what we’ve lost. But those will fade just as everything else in life does.

It’s just the cycle.

But I’m going to try. I will strain to try and not take anything for granted. Not having a clean toilet (something I’m so thankful for after I’ve travelled!), not my eyesight or my fingers, or being able to drive my own car (which I’m always reminded of when the car needs to get fixed and I don’t have it.)

I’m going to try. For I know I’m blessed. Blessed with everything I have.  Right down to the smallest detail.