When What We Have Is Enough

We can only be said to be alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~Thornton Wilder~

At Thanksgiving, most of us take time from our busy lives to give thanks for what we have. The next day is Black Friday, a mad scramble to start accumulating what we don't have or don't have enough of. Now Black Friday is creeping into Thanksgiving hour by hour. Soon we will be eating turkey for breakfast before we rush off to shop.

For many of us, gratitude is a brief hiatus from the bustle of our busy lives. We can be so consumed with accumulating the latest gadgets that we lose sight of what is important in life. Most of us do not know true lack until disaster strikes. If we were to travel the back streets of the world or places with no streets, perhaps we would start to appreciate how fortunate we are.

In a consumer culture, it is easy to view our possessions as our treasure. We are only as valuable as what we have. Who we are inside seems to have lost significance. At one time people were valued for their stories and their insights. Now we tend to judge others' worth based on their material wealth.

When I was a child, I befriended older people where I lived and everywhere I visited. I would find a way to wander off from my cousins and friends to seek out people like the Slaters in Newark, New York. I never knew what they did when I was not around. I imagined them sitting in their living room waiting for me to show up.

I sat very still, hoping their snow white angora cat would become less bashful and venture out from behind the couch. I paged through the eight hundred pages of Land and Sea with its color plates of real and imagined denizens of the ocean and jungle. We always ended with a snack, watermelon in the summer or cookies and milk in the winter. I never learned much about them. They spent most of our visits asking about my childhood adventures and reminiscing about our past visits.

Now I am nearly as old as most of the people I visited as a child. I think of all the experiences I have had over the years, all the places I have discovered and all the fascinating people I have met. I am grateful for each day I have lived. Even my difficult times have helped me appreciate how wonderful life can be in contrast.

When I look back on my life, I realize that the people I have befriended and learned from have been far more valuable to me than anything I have accumulated. I hope to continue my life adventure with a sense of gratitude for everything and everyone coming my way, especially those little surprises which I can never anticipate.

Life Lab Lessons

What is important to you?Who is important to you?Value what and who you have in your life.Be grateful for what lies along your life path.Find a way to make the best of whatever happens.

Joseph G. Langen is the author of 5 ebooks, Commonsense Wisdom for Everyday Life, Young Man of the Cloth, Navigating Life, The Pastor's Inferno and A Year With My Muse. See more about his writing at www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jlangen Contact him at: jglangen@gmail.com