Finding Joy in Gratefulness

         As I scroll my newsfeed at FB this morning, I read about a teen-ager whom I personally know, emotionally complaining about how life is to her, seemingly so sad at how she is treated at home. It made me think that these things are real. Feelings are real! Words are real! Facial expressions of anger are real, emotions and reactions are real. A simple hit of bad word from a sibling or a parent can feel like doom in a day. Those things can make us really sad! May mga salitang para kang nabagsakan ng langit at lupa!

        As I pity her, I wanted to console, I wanted to tell her in private to just ignore, or to go have some good time with friends, watch movies endlessly at netlix, chat with FB pals, just run around in the woods, or pumunta sa tabing dagat at bilangin ang mga alon. A lot of those things that can make her forget what she feels. I am a little worried, their family lost a cousin, only 15 years old, as she ended her own life. Pero tama nga lang ba ang kalimutan? Wala bang paraan para mawala nang tuluyan, hindi lang matabunan?

        In my own life though, I have had tons of disappointments, failures, errors, embarrassments and shame that is enough to make me really sad at the moment. Being sad sometimes is  an understatement, countless of times I got depressed. Walang kahulilip na lumbay, ika nga!

        But what have I learned through the years to counteract such feelings of defeat that has never failed? Its like a hack with instantaneous relief. I COUNT MY BLESSINGS ! I do not stop until I get the inner joy I want. I count even the most little things like pushing a good poop (haha), having food in the table, experiencing a good weather, easily finding a ride to work, having enough money for the fare or maybe as simple as getting a smile from the street sweeper. If I cannot get the joy in 5 things, I look for 10, or 15++. Sometimes, I have to look for 50 or more, and even have to write my items for gratitude just so I can check for duplication. Writing also distracts me! What I have learned in those exercise  is that, I have learned to be grateful. Being grateful gives me less chance to complain, to get sour, nor to blame.

        How about you? Have you tried it? If you have not, it will never harm you to try, unless you enjoy being sad! Haha! Minsan may mga tao ding pinipili na magpailalim sa lungkot.

        I also believe that, a joyful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22). Hence, if loneliness dominates our soul, we will eventually be physically sick as stress is the cause of countless diseases and depression weakens our immune system.  

         Happy joyful weekend!