As we approach the end of the year, it’s normal to take stock of just what kind of year it’s been. Has it been lucky? Have you had a team of invisible angels laying four-leaf clovers everywhere you step? More likely you’ve had your share of challenges mixed in with the triumphs. Perhaps you’ve had problems at work, or grappled with health issues, or been bereaved. Such is the way life pummels us from time to time.
But if you’re like my friend Brandie, you’re able to decipher and feel grateful for the moments of pure pudding. Because you know you’ve had them. Human nature is such that we are almost always in contact with well-meaning pals, and well-meaning people we’ve never even met.
I know Brandie recognizes this, because she made her sentiments known on Facebook this week. “In some ways 2012 hasn’t been the easiest year,” she wrote. “But I also have to acknowledge that it’s the year I left a purse full of cash and cheques on the subway and got it back, lost my car keys in the snow and had them turned in by a ski lift operator, misplaced my iPhone and found it, and – yesterday – recovered my bank card from the florist. Thank you, universe.”
And thanks, kindness of strangers. I might add cheekily that if a person routinely carries around a purse packed with cash and cheques, if they have both the means and the mobility to ski on their leisure time – if they own an iPhone and a bank card, for that matter – they could be worse off than all that. (I recommend this “First World Problems” video if you really want to feel like a dung beetle for ever complaining about your caffe latte being too sweet or your Internet connection too sluggish.)
It’s not easy to struggle, and we all do. But it’s also not a bad idea to make like Brandie, and take time to appreciate when things actually do turn out for us.
50 Good Deeds 