Thankfulness

I do not hear much about it these days, but there is a lot of it going around.  Mostly it is unspoken but felt.  Often it is taken for granted.  Too often the exact opposite is concentrated on to the point where the other seems to not exist.  But it does.  It may appear small at first, but the more I look at it the bigger it becomes.
Thankfulness.  Giving something more weight than its negative.  Not giving thanks for something bad I cannot control, but giving thanks in it. 
Looking for positives.  What is the alternative?  I can adopt a woe is me attitude or make out I am the unluckiest guy in the world.    But thinking like that can mean I miss the positive in what has happened.  By no stretch of the imagination could the circumstance be seen to be good, but my response can be.
I have had bad things happen.  Things I would wish on no-one let alone me.  My tumour and subsequent stroke have robbed me of things but caused me to refocus on what matters.  My bro passing away and me missing him.  Yet I know he is not suffering anymore and is in a better place.  His home is now being enjoyed by others.  I lost at table tennis the other night.  Nope, that is just bad.  Actually I got to meet someone I had not met before and I made him feel good.  I do that a fair bit.
Being thankful has heaps of benefits really.  I know I want to be around someone who has a positive outlook rather than someone who sees the worst in everything.  I know someone who says his wife’s parents see everything in opposites.  If one says the sky is blue the other says it is grey.  Reminds me of the old saying “two men looked through prison bars, one saw mud, the other stars.  I heard about a guy in a hospital bed who would describe what he saw out the window to his bed bound neighbour.  He would describe gardens and green and trees and a desirable place.  Then he died.  Turned out he was blind.
That illustration speaks to me big time.   The way I see things starts on the inside.  I can whinge and complain about the way things are and others can acknowledge that things are really as I describe.  Yet I can look with different eyes.  Instead of seeing what is wrong I see what is right.
I am a realist.  Things may be bad, but I find the best place to start to work on it is finding the good in it.  I can be angry and upset and declare the seeming injustice of it all.  But doing that I am only guaranteed one thing – to attract people of like mind.  Or I can start with injustice and work with others to fix it all the while maintaining a healthy outlook.
I personally find that way more attractive in another.  I am more inclined to get along side them and attempt to do something about it.  I do not seek disillusionment as my companion.  I seek out illumination.
There is no doubt from my experience that thankfulness can be hard, but it sure beats the alternative.