I am Celebrating ……. are you?

I had an ‘ahah’ moment in the shower some months ago as I indulged in my increasingly numerous moments of ‘self-pity’; it hit me that gosh my life could so much more worse off than it actually is. It’s taken me quite some time to get to this realisation.

When it all seems bleak and you struggle to find a meaning to it all; how difficult will it be to find something to be grateful for and celebrate about? Most people agree that being grateful is important if we are to have a positive life and it is only when you find things to be grateful for that you are able to see the bright side of life. Unfortunately, we often look at what we don’t have instead of what we have, and we end up complaining unendingly instead of being grateful. The biggest NO NO is taking things for granted. Taking something for granted makes us forget how miserable we would be if we didn’t have it.

They say that sometimes one needs to experience a loss to be able to appreciate what you have. When something goes wrong in your life and sympathetic friends in their efforts to comfort you, tell you about how what you are experiencing could be worse; and recount stories of other people’s misfortunes, at that moment while you wallow in self-pity, you may think “oh just shut up, you lot!” And that is a perfectly normal reaction. It’s only moments later that you come to appreciate the situation in its entirety and also appreciate what has been left of the situation and learn lessons from how you can turn things round in your favour.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather not wait till that experience happens. With time, I have come to realize that we should learn to appreciate the things we have without first experiencing a loss. So here are 10 simple things I am grateful for in my life. While perhaps not all of them will apply to you, I believe there are more that apply than don’t. Here they are:

1. I have a loving family – my family: mom, dad, brothers, husband, aunts, cousins ….. I am so lucky to have unconditional love and support from these people I call family. And since I got married, I have enlarged this circle to include in-laws. I have been lucky to have such laid-back, no-drama people who allow me to be and are always there for me no matter what (well, almost). It is these people too that we take for granted the most. Who do you pay a debt to the fastest? More a friend that your brother. We must be grateful for family.

2. I have good friends – True that my circle of friends has shrunk as I got older but the quality has certainly improved! My oldest friends are my closest. Years ago, my mother was always vocal about the friends she approved of and those she didn’t and it is so weird that those she approved of are the ones who are still in my life now; these mothers are such witches! I have numerous acquaintances but only a handful that I call constantly and whose counsel I seek regularly. I am especially grateful because I know that good, caring friends are something that not everyone has.

3. I am healthy – Sometimes, we need to be sick to understand the blessings of being healthy. When you are down with something as ‘routine’ as malaria; and your muscles and joints ache and creak, don’t you just miss being able to move about effortlessly? I am soo grateful that I have never been seriously sick, ever! While we have good health, let’s be thankful and do all that we can to keep our bodies that way. Doctors and hospital workers are not miracle workers, sometimes, our bodies can let us down without any good explanation and we have to accept that a. It is just the will of God or b. we did something wrong somewhere along the line. This brings to mind the recent sagas with gynecological issues at the hospitals. My heart goes out to the families who have experienced losses but sometimes we have to be careful we don’t allow grief and the need to find someone to blame to cloud our better judgment of situations. I repeat, sometimes our bodies just let us down and there is nothing we can do about it.

4. I have enough financially – I may not be living in Trasaco, but I have a roof over my head and enough closet space to keep all my designer labels and enough shoe rack space to keep all my Louboutins (hahahha, I wish!!!).
I may not be driving the Honda CRV (as I would have wished) but at least my old banger’s shock absorbers work and I can travel from home to work in minutes instead of travelling in months or years like Magellan and Columbus. Still not convinced I have enough? Try this http://www.globalrichlist.com/.

Whenever I hear of the latest celebrity or rich dude who just committed suicide, I wonder: “so why do I want his/her life?” Enough said.

5. My computer works properly – Have you ever experienced turning on your PC only to find that it didn’t work and all your data is gone? I have and it is sooo damn frustrating. That was when I also experienced ‘tears of frustration’. Never again since then.

6. I have abundant entertainment options – Even royalty eons ago, didn’t have a fraction of what I have now. I have my teevee, movies, my Blackberry, Solitaire on my laptop, just to name a few.

7. The law of the land works in Ghana – Can you imagine if people could do just anything they liked and if there was virtually no protection of rights? Well, before you die of horror at such thoughts, understand why I especially feel safe and protected in Ghana where we have good law codes. Fine, we are not perfect, but we are not Darfur.

8. Online social communities exist – Through the hustle and bustle of what our lives have become in the noughties, I am grateful that I have a medium to communicate with friends: Facebook, MSN Messenger, Google Chat etc; they all make it easy to keep in touch with friends and family on a daily basis in real time; still be part of their lives without committing a lot of time and energy, banter and laughter shooting around the world at the speed of light.

9. That my grandfather lived – He passed away two years ago and not a week goes by without me thinking about him and tearing up. He was a wonderful and sometimes annoying man. He was a true patriarch, educated during a time when not many were and immensely proud of his family. There was a time when I was angry with God for taking him away before he could walk me halfway down the aisle and see his great-grandchildren being born; I also got angry when I realized that Mugabe is older and still alive! But I have come to appreciate knowing him for soo long before he passed. I appreciate the fact that I have wonderful memories of him especially as I have friends whose grandparents passed away even before they were born and others who have grandparents tucked away in the villages who they see annually at Christmas. I miss you lots Papa but I am glad I had you when I did.

10. The curtains in my bedroom – They are see-through and each weekend morning at 6am I cuss furiously as the sun streams in; I also vow there and then to get new curtains with black-out lining. I have still not changed them because 30 minutes later as I get out of bed, I become grateful that I am alive to see another day!

These 10 things are simple, but my life would be miserable without them and I’m sure there are still many things I have covered here. So learn to appreciate what you have and you will realize what a blessed life is yours!


Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6 NIV)