Opinion: A little gratitude goes a long way

​​Let’s take a moment together to appreciate life. The mere fact that you are freely reading what I have freely written means you can read, as can I. It means that you live a life that half the global population doesn’t, one where you can read to an advanced level.

We also live in a country where life expectancy is 82-84 years, well above even the European average.

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We can sometimes lose sight of the good because we are focused on the bad. I don’t mean that we’re pessimistic, just that it’s easy to lose our sense of gratitude for all we have when there’s so much that we know could be better.

That sense of gratitude for life’s simple things can slip through our grasp. We’re all busy trying to ‘get ahead’ and that can mean that our sights are fixed on what we want to attain rather than on what we already have attained.

No one is immune to the seduction of the world as it tries to sell us more and more, but the best things in life really are priceless. Learning to invest in them takes a shift in perspective from time to time.

There’s nothing wrong with having nice things. We should stop now and again to acknowledge how lucky we are to have them.

It helps us appreciate all the effort it took to get what we have, making those things more valuable to us.

This is important in a world where, as soon as the ‘newness’ dissipates, we’re encouraged by fair means or foul to want more.

We’re never told that we can be satisfied with having what we have now.

Take a moment today to look at your life and to measure it, not against anyone else’s or even against what you wish you had.

If you are healthy, have a home, a job, good food and free time to spend with friends and family, you are doing better than billions of people across the globe, certainly, but even that’s not the measurement we’re concerned with right now though.

Are you at peace with yourself? Do you have a sense of calm and wellbeing in your mind and body? Is your life one you are truly grateful for? If the answer to these questions is yes then you’re doing better than almost everyone.

To be content is something that we spend whole lives chasing only to discover that we can have it at any point we choose.

I’m not talking about settling either, in a way that accepts less and calls it enough, but that doesn’t feed the soul. It’s not about mediocrity but about understanding what’s important.

I own very little, not because I’m a martyr but because the effort involved in accumulating has been diverted.

I spend that energy on people, on connection and on being useful.

This in turn rewards me with a sense of accomplishment.

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I still enjoy some nice things. I like good food, music, leisure time with friends.

I’m also a demon for books and definitely own more waistcoats than I need.

The only difference is that most days I remember to be thankful for it all, while knowing that I don’t need any of it. In the end it’s all transient and I won’t be taking any of it with me when I depart this little interlude between the two great mysteries.

It also means that it’s not easy to persuade me into buying for the sake of having. I’m not an advert for consuming. I would like to think that I’d be a terrible lottery winner because I’d want to give it all away. Well, most of it anyway: there’s no harm in being comfortable, just in being attached to comfort.

I can think of a hundred different ways I’d feel guilty for hoarding more than I need. At the same time, in this world we have to provision for the future beyond our working, earning lives. There’s a balance to be struck.

We live in a world that costs and so we are inextricably bound to need. That can either be acceptance of how things are or it can be an all consuming, blinkered race to the end.

One way sees what’s necessary and balances that with what’s here now while the other is always fearful. One way promotes peace and contentment but the other whispers insidiously that enough is never enough.

Counterintuitively, I can even be grateful for adversity. It teaches me I’m not alone. It teaches me humility in asking for help. It teaches me honest self reflection.

We aren’t revealed to ourselves in times of plenty but in times of lack. I’ve had plenty of occasions where I needed but didn’t always get, yet here I am, grateful for the trial and the realisation of what was really important in the end: my family, my friends the occasional joy of the puzzled look on someone’s face as they try to work out how they recognise me.

I’m blessed by small wonders, but that’s the miracle, small wonders experienced with great love. If you buy a coffee today, be grateful. The price of it is what some families in this world live on each day. Be aware, not through guilt but through knowing that no matter how hard our lives can be, there’s few things so bad they couldn’t be worse.

Occasionally go without and give to someone who has less. Be grateful for the small things, they’re the big things in the end.