The Gratifying Grateful Game

In such a changing digital world where we are bombarded by multiple gadgets, we feel the need to follow the crowd and be a part of it. We hardly get time to pause, breathe and enjoy what we have. Time is something that is always short and as my hair are streaking silver by passing days, I realize how mundane many things are, that we once considered a must have. Being ordinary human beings, we can’t sell our ferraris and all our other worldly possessions and follow into the monk’s footsteps. It might seem that technology is turning us into busy bodies but it is up to us how we handle it.

About a year ago my daughter introduced a game to us calling it ‘the grateful game’. As a family of four (my crazy self, my loving husband, my cheerful daughter & my wise son) made it a habit to play the grateful game after our evening prayers and dinner together. We would ask each other, ‘What are you grateful for today?’ The interesting part is that no matter how our days went, we always found something that we were really grateful for and that has started to build. Luckily we acquired a too good to be true, son-in-law who is also a part of our grateful game. Since my daughter moved away to live happily ever after, we call her while we sit at the dinner table, to carry on the game.

Since we have been playing the game, we have discovered that there are innumerable things in a single day that we can be grateful for, we just don’t pay attention. Sometimes it is a simple gesture like a smile from someone that we acknowledge and then we carry it all day with us. I believe that every gesture attracts a similar gesture. Kindness thrives on kindness. Last week, as I was walking to the train station, the weather just played up and within minutes I was half drenched, I was half way between the tube station and my place so I decided the rain to stop under a tree. A kind stranger who live on the other side of the road, brought his umbrella insisted that I either take his umbrella

or sit inside his house. I was so touched by his kindness that I left him my birthday chocolate cake that I was carrying. Eating chocolate has always made me happier but that day parting from my chocolate cake gave me a double chocolatey feeling. Now that stranger is on my Christmas gift list.

It just reminds me of a story I read many years ago:

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from the trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?” “It was great, Dad”.  “Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked. “Oh yes”, said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father. The son answered:
“I saw that we have one dog and they had four. “We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden and they have a creek that has no end. “We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. “Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. “We buy our food, but they grow theirs. “We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added:
“Thanks, Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

People keep telling me that I am lucky to have a perfect family, understanding in-laws, jolly good friends, happy employees, satisfied students and a great place to live. Agreed, I am lucky because I don’t go into perfection of pleasing people, I please myself by doing the right things and people around me help me to achieve that. My family might not approve of everything I do or say, my in-laws might find me annoying sometimes, my employees might not agree with my decisions, my students might not understand what I talk about but all these disagreements are adding to my learning.
Today I am grateful that I am learning to see the difficulties s stepping stones. I invite you all to introduce the grateful game in your life, in your family and friend’s lives and help them see how many things we ignore to acknowledge.

‘If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering. If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all.’