If you have no idea how truly blessed and lucky you are, go spend some time with the homeless or the disabled, people who would give anything for some of the things we take for granted.Do you think it can't happen to you? Many of them thought so too.
I know of a successful man who was involved in an accident that left him blind, another, a trained engineer who sat on a plane and for a still unexplained reason his body stopped working, confining him to a bed paralysed from the neck down for years, now he can do barely anything for himself.I have spent time talking with people whose personal savings were vaporised by a loved one's illness, or the collapse of a business that plummeted them from darlings of their society to homeless.
You who woke up this morning with health and a functioning body should drop to your knees and bless God, life, the universe, dumb luck or whoever you ascribe your good fortune to, that you do not have to wait for someone else to take you to the toilet when you need to go. Or that you're plugged into machines that are keeping you alive.If you can walk unaided give thanks, there are many to whom that is a superpower.
If you live in your own house and can pay your bills, feed your family regardless of how modest the life, there are so many for whom that can only be a dream and a fantasy.Do not be so caught up chasing what you don't have that you forget to see what you do have. Many of us think only of the next level and fail to appreciate how truly blessed we are right where we are.Don't make that mistake, it robs you of happiness.If you have one friend in the world cherish them, there are many who are dying of loneliness.
By going and seeking out the people who really have it hard you would get to see your own life in perspective.The secret of happiness is acceptance, it is managing circumstances, it is gratitude for blessings even as we hope and strive for more. The truly wealthy know this, and because of this they live peaceful and happy lives.
Forget the people who have it better than you, go find the people who have it worse and bless them, see how you feel. Come back and tell me if it cured your depression and just like that transported you to happiness.
Phillip Edward Alexander,
Social & Political Activist