How Life’s Biggest Complexities Help Me be Grateful for All of the Small and Simple Things

Being Thankful is Cliche’ this Time of Year but Also Vital

At age 31, there’s not much I haven’t seen, done or been through. I’ve lived through the best of the best and the worst of the worst. I’ve forced a smile and moved forward through the most difficult days and tumultuous times.

Depression, anxiety, loss, heartbreak and fear in it’s most rawest form make just getting out of bed difficult for me some mornings.

But somehow I always manage to — something keeps me going, even when it feels like I can’t.

Thanksgiving is the time of year many of us reflect on who and what it is in our lives we’re grateful for. Love, family and loyalty are everything to me. Money and material things don’t mean a whole lot to me, they come, they go. We lose them as quickly as we earned or acquired them. Some folks take better care of their material possessions than they do their loved ones. They work harder trying to impress people who don’t even matter than they do at just being there for the people who mean everything to them.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the mundane and trivial things in life.

We can get so overwhelmed with it’s stresses and problems that we forget to remind ourselves of all the blessings we have in our lives, be it our warm homes, refrigerators full of food or our loved ones around the table on Thanksgiving.

Not everyone has those things — and it’s this time of year not having them seems to hurt the most.

As I scrolled through my Facebook feed out of habit this morning, I came across a picture of two brothers I grew up with, who both died of overdoses before they were thirty years old. One was 22 when he passed and the other was 29. For a brief moment, I imagined the pain their Mother, Father and family must feel on days such as today, as two seats around their table will be empty.

This evening when I sit down at my own Family’s table for Thanksgiving dinner, I’ll momentarily feel sad for the empty seats, where my Uncle and Aunt who both took their own lives, would’ve been sitting — as well as for my Grandmother and Grandfather who are no longer with us either.

But then I’ll look around the rest of the table, see the smiling faces and the overstuffed plates of food and I’ll remember to be grateful for each and every single person I love, who I still have in my life.

I’ll see the kids being picky about what they do and don’t want to eat and remind them of how lucky they are to have the privilege of even having food to turn down.

This year my Family and I have something extra special to thankful for, as my cousin who is more of like a sister to me and is in need of a new heart at the age of 34, was finally just placed on listing for a transplant after almost a year wait. This afternoon, I’ll look across the room and see her bickering with her husband and smile. It’s the little things that fill me with gratitude and help me forget about my biggest problems, if only temporarily.

The holiday season isn’t about the fancy things, name brands or expensive gifts. It’s about the loved ones we have in our lives and the warm homes and meals we get to share with them. It’s about sneaking out with your crazy cousin or sister to smoke a joint before Thanksgiving dinner and the collective laughs that fill the room after.

It’s as easy to be grateful for all of the little joys we have in life as it is to stress and worry about our biggest problems. It’s all a matter of which we choose to focus on — and I for one choose gratitude. Not just today either but on each and every day, if possible. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, life is too short and precious not to.