Tag Archives: appreciation

Eye Spy

I bet everyone has a story about how they almost lost an eye. A projectile of some sort just missed their eye; the corner of a car door; something in their hand that just missed their eye when they fell. There’s always a harrowing close call where someone could have lost an eye but didn’t. It’s amazing that there aren’t more people walking around our planet with an eye patch or glass eye.

There are however, a lot of people that wear glasses to improve the sight they do have. I’m just getting to that point now. When my eyes are tired I struggle to read on my phone and I depend on some 1.25 magnifiers to help me keep things in focus. It’s amazing how we’ve been able to improve the vision of people who would otherwise live in a blurry world.

A little luck, and a little science keeps us seeing the world clearly, with perspective, out of two eyes. And our world is filled with wonderful things to see. Beautiful people, food, sunsets, and all sorts of amazing things from the smallest of creatures to the vastness of distant stars in the night sky.

Sight is a gift, and it’s amazing to think of how lucky we are to see the world in all of its splendour. I don’t think we spend enough time appreciating how lucky we are to see. .

I appreciate the comments

A big thanks to everyone who takes the time to read my daily writing. In the last week I’ve had comment responses to my Daily-Ink on my blog, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

If I had to choose, I’d love to see these comments on my blog because then they ‘live’ attached to my post, rather than living on a timeline that passes by never to be seen again. That said, I know that if I didn’t automatically post my blog to these platforms, people wouldn’t see them at all, and it’s just easier to respond on the platform you are accustomed to. That’s the nature of social media these days, they are designed to keep you on their platform, watching their advertising, and engaging with them.

This is why when you share an Instagram picture on Twitter, you don’t see the image on Twitter, you see a link to Instagram, but when you share an Instagram picture on Facebook, you see the photo. Instagram and Facebook play nicely together because they are both owned by Facebook. It would be just as easy to have Twitter do this too, but the competing companies both want your attention.

So, I realize that comments will come in on many platforms, and although I said I do have a preference, I am truly grateful to converse/like/interact on any platform where a comment comes up. I’m quite honestly honoured when anyone takes the time to engage with my posts. I know and appreciate that my mom reads them regularly, and beyond that, I am often flattered and amazed that I get responses from local and distant friends alike… from those I know in my daily life, and from those whom I’ve never met face to face but am connected to inline.

I marvel at the idea that anyone can be their own publisher and share ideas across platforms and across the world, and I thank you for taking the time to interact with my journal of public thoughts.

The great outdoors

For the first time since last summer I got on my bike and headed for a ride behind a nearby lake. I forgot how rejuvenating it can be to be in the woods, to hear the rush of water, to see the distant snow covered mountains, and glimpse a waterfall in the distance. All this just a 20 minute drive and 30 minute ride from my house.

I often go for wonderful walks with my wife on the dykes, and in a wooded lot near our house, so it’s not like I don’t ever get out in nature. However today I felt like I was really absorbed into the environment. The world felt so alive.

If you need a pick-me-up, escape into an environment where you are surrounded by nature. Leave you phone in your pocket, and music off. Appreciate the natural world in all its splendour.

Appreciate what you have

I’m almost at the end of the novel ‘A Fine Balance’, written by Rohinton Mistry and narrated by Vikas Adam on Audible. Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins… it’s a fictional tome.

From the publisher’s summary, “With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India. The time is 1975.”

It’s a wonderful story of different lives crossing paths and creating bonds. It is a story of hardship and of people making the most of what they can out of life, when life options and choices are painfully minimal. The main characters live lives where sadness and loss prevail and yet they find friendships through kindness and appreciation for what little they have.

It’s a fiction, but it reminds me that so many people live with less. So many people face hardships like I’ve never experienced. A book like this reminds me to appreciate what I have.

I realize that by nothing more than luck, I was born at a time and in a place that allows me privileges beyond the imaginations of many before me, and many born into different circumstances, in different parts of the world.

I won the birth lottery. If you are reading this, you probably did too.

Appreciating your family

Sometimes it’s easy to take advantage of the people that are closest to you; to leverage the fact that they are just ‘always there’. The very people that would do anything for you in a time of need are the same ones who you expect to be there without showing any gratitude.

Sometimes it is easy to get frustrated by your family; to roll your eyes and think ‘here we go again’, rather than seeing things from their perspective. The very people that most appreciate you for who you are do not always get treated as nicely as a stranger would be treated.

Sometimes it is easy to be triggered by your family; to be immediately upset by something they say or do, something that you would tolerate far more by someone unrelated.

There is the saying, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’, think of the first word in the phrase: familiarity. It is the family, that you are in close association with, that you know best, that can lead to a loss of respect, or lead to disrespect, from close awareness of faults or repeated behaviours that you don’t like.

It only takes an absence of these people in your lives, through time, geography, or death, to help you recognize that your familiarity also breeds love, compassion, and appreciation for those that love you, and that you love. Familiarity breeds love. Familiarity breeds compassion. Familiarity breeds appreciation. Or at least is should.

Who in your family can you show gratitude for today? What’s stopping you?

How important is it?

How important is your health to you right now? It becomes more important when you feel an ailment.

How important is money to you right now? It becomes more important if you are struggling financially?

How important are your friends to you right now? They become more important when you are in need of one.

There are so many things that we don’t readily recognize as important until there is a deficit pointing out our concern. Food, shelter, affection, love… all things we value/desire/need, and all are taken for granted except for when we notice their absence.

It’s good to be thankful when we have these things. To recognize what’s important to us when we are fortunate. To remind ourselves that we are lucky, appreciating what we have rather than only paying attention when there is a shortage.

How important is it to appreciate the positive people and circumstances that surround you, when things are going in your favour?

And how important is it to be charitable to those who are less fortunate?