Gratitude

"Gratitude is the motor of Life"

Being Grateful for whatever you have in life tends to bring more and more good things into your life and conversely constant sour grapes about one's life tends to bring in more things to be upset about.

Lately, for me I have many things to be grateful about in my life and so I am.

And this then tends to bring more things to be grateful about in my life too.

It's not that other things that are happening in the world don't look pretty bad: of people dying that I know, of mud slides near a family home in Santa Barbara, of people I love that might die or have already.

But, I find that being grateful for whatever good things are happening in your life tends to bring more of the same. And if more good things are happening in your life than bad don't forget to be grateful and to Thank God for all the many blessings in your life that you have lived as long as you already have.

Here's another thing I'm really grateful for: I'm really glad I don't have to live from 12 to 30 again.

The hardest thing I found about this time in my life was: Unrealistic expectations.

For example, from age 15 on I always had girlfriends but that doesn't necessarily mean you are happy. So, for me, unrealistic expectations in relationships or in work made this time in my life a time when I considered suicide a lot between the ages of 21 and 25.

But then, I learned to live for others which kept me alive through those times. I realized I couldn't take my own life because this would harm my parents, relatives and friends. And this altruism got me through the rough times until I started having children and getting married and all that.

Once I had to begin starting businesses to support my children my life began to make more sense to me because I found a selfish existence often leads to suicide (at least it did for me between 21 and 25).

So, gratitude for all the good things in your life leads to longevity. I found as I was grateful for my life I rewarded myself with organic food (so my body lived longer). Being nice to myself (so my body lived longer and more happily). Surrounding myself with better and better people (so I was encouraged more by surrounding myself with better and better people, to exercise more, travel more,, share the world with my children and by learning and having fun traveling the world and running businesses.

So, gratitude spawns gratitude. Once you begin to be grateful for all the good in your life it tends to get better and better and better.

By God's Grace