004: Gratitude
*This is an article that I wrote way back in my first year of undergraduate study— back before this website became a source of D&D 5e homebrew material. Back then, it was all about personal development.
Take 2: Everyday I take a cold shower, meditate twice, and fall asleep in comfort of my Sticky Note-posted affirmations. These are practices that have grown more vital to my life in the past year-and-a-half and were crucial in maintaining my peace of mind while I recovered from a pole vault-related blunt force injury. Instead of being caught in the web of disability, I fell back on my strong foundations and rewrote my story. I realize that learning never stops and continue to question my limiting beliefs. I meditate on gratitude, postulate on fortitude, and lean on compassion. I feel that you have to be truly yourself in order to contribute real good to the world. That’s my daily goal, and it becomes more achievable by applying value to strong rituals.
Take 2: As a continued practice, I attempt to refocus my perception of my shared existence in the world into one based in gratitude and compassion. I acknowledge that every action anyone takes is simply an expression of a loveable trait of theirs or my flawed perception of it. I know that everyone is kind, and I work to exude compassion even in my silent moments. When I feel kindness in those around me, I feel more secure in the collective caring of the human race.
I haven’t written anything for this purpose in a while, and that portrays not the lack of ideas gracing my developing mind but rather the abundance of them. I’ve been at a place structured on education, but it is all too common to encounter students studying subjects of little importance to their life, their truth, or their journey.
I acknowledge that life is long and winding. I acknowledge that on the global scale, on my future scale, I am a humble passenger in the ship of my destiny. I am growing, I am learning, but something I can be certain of today is the necessity for urgency.
Sometimes I look around and feel like I am living in slow-motion. I gaze at the light modernity unfolding in my vicinity: a tree swaying, dust blowing in the shifting winds, students walking past, biking past, talking, laughing. I sit by windows while I eat. I pay attention to the world, I meditate in cold stairwells at two in the morning, I construct my consciousness through habits and language.
I acknowledge the simplicity of change, of permanence. I am change, I am permanence. I question my limiting beliefs. I offer conflicting evidence. I thank service employees and smuggle bananas in my coat pockets.
I jump down stairwells and beam in the grocery store. I glow from my eyes and speak with certainty. I laugh like a little kid and walk with confidence. I know what to say at every moment of every day. I am always growing.
I deserve the journey.
I am the end goal.
I am compassionate¹. I am kind. I see the best in every situation and can find the opportunities in any challenge.
Take advantage of every second on this earth. Say “You’re welcome, I’m glad to help” instead of “No problem”. Smile from your eyes; it’ll light up your life. Be gracious and thankful to all who offer the slightest assistance.
Remember that everyone you encounter offers assistance: the assistance of connection, of reminding you of your singularity.
Be an individual. Don’t take flowers from anywhere except the ground or finished botany lectures. Ask your professor before taking plants from class, and thank him for his time. Always pet a farm cat. Don’t be afraid to talk to him. It might be the realest conversation of your week.
Wake up at 5am and study languages. The best people are those who will make you grateful they even exist. Make sure you tell them that. Make sure you remember your lack of limitations, but how everything is much more possible around them.
Never take any moment of this life for granted.
Be here.
¹Pema Chödrön’s pocketbook, The Compassion Book: Teachings for Awakening the Heart
