Count Your Blessings

I found this duo, Amy and Lauren, on YouTube some time ago and love their music. This rendition of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” encouraged me to post this note about counting your blessings. Please, listen to the music and read on…

I use to pass out a note entitled “Count Your Blessings” along with a yellow legal pad to folks who worked and or lived around me and I tried to encourage them to take a look at the good things or positive things in the their life. 

We often have a tendency to forget the blessings in our lives especially when things get tough.

My humble endeavor met with such open hearts that I want to pass along the encouragement here online. Sadly I can’t give each of you your own yellow legal pad but you can acquire one and then make your own list of blessings.

If you find the idea of worth, pass it along to your friends, family and or your work mates. You know, we can change the world, one person at a time by helping change their heart. Fostering an attitude of gratitude is a great way to do it.

Count Your Blessings…

Before I get to my shared list of blessings, I want to take a moment and share with you something somebody shared with me the other day and I think we all need to hear a story like this from time to time. It’s good for the heart and the soul!

“There was a time when I was in a state of utter despair, immersed in guilt over promises made on which I had not delivered. I went to my vocal coach, Fred Wilkerson, weeping copiously. 

He asked what was the matter. I responded, “I’m going crazy. I am almost at the brink of suicide.” He offered me a legal-size, lined yellow pad and a pen. He said, “Write down your blessings!” 

Furious that he didn’t understand my condition, I shouted, “Don’t talk nonsense, I’m telling you I am going crazy.” 

He said, “Write down that you could hear me say ‘write down’ and think of the millions who cannot hear the cries of their babies, or the sweet words of their beloveds, or the alarm that could help them seek safety. Write down that you can see this yellow pad and think of the millions on this planet who cannot see the smiles of their growing children or the delight in the faces of their beloveds, or the colors of the sunrise and the softness of the twilight. Write down that you know how to write. Write down that you know how to read.” 

Wilkie, as he was known, gave me that lesson in 1955. Fifty-five years later, I have written 31 books, essays, plays, and lyrics for songs — all on yellow pads. I remain in an attitude of gratitude.” — Maya Angelou Performer, Poet, and Author

Here are some of my blessings that I should always keep in mind:

I'm thankful for a body, that works as it should, for the most part, given the amount of abuse and or neglect I've heaped upon it over these 48 years.

I'm thankful for a sound mind, though some may disagree with its soundness, and my natural and restless inquisitiveness.

I'm thankful for hands that can type and preform delicate motor functions and which are skilled at crafting, caressing, and creating.

I'm thankful that my family, neighbors, friends, and teachers along my way taught me how to read and fostered a love of books and the pursuit of knowledge in me.

I'm thankful for my one good eye and for the redundancy of the visual system my body was born with, so that when I destroyed one of those eyes out of stupidity that I had another one to fall back on.

I'm thankful for my first bike and every bike since that carried me into a life long love of riding, exploring, and playing.

I'm thankful for a faith that is as intricate, informed, and structured as it is fluid, exploratory, and grace-filled.

I'm thankful for friends, family, acquaintances, lovers, and even a few adversaries who help to teach me how to live in relationship and offer me a glimpse of the infinite diversity within infinite combinations that makes up the human perspective.

I'm thankful for my many animal companions who shared my life and taught me about unconditional love, responsibility, and companionship.

I'm thankful for steel cut oats and pizza. ;-)

These are just a few of the blessings in my life but there are so many more to be thankful for. Maybe you can add a few things on your own yellow pad!