What 9/11 and a 3-Year-Old Taught
Me About Gratitude
by Tony Mase
© Tony Mase - All Rights Reserved
http://www.constructivescience.com
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One of the most important concepts Wallace D. Wattles wrote
about in his books was gratitude. As a matter of fact, in the
book for which he's best known, "The Science of Getting
Rich", Wallace D. Wattles devoted an entire chapter to gratitude
and used the word gratitude some thirty-two times throughout
the book.
Although I'd been studying "The Science of Getting Rich"
by Wallace D. Wattles for over three years, and made incredible
changes in my life by applying its principles, I still didn't
completely get this gratitude "thing".
I understood the importance of gratitude intellectually and,
at least to some extent, was applying it in my life, but, and
I don't know if this was just a "guy thing" or what,
I didn't feel like I really understood it emotionally at a deep
down, visceral level.
Then it happened...
September 11, 2001...
A day few of us will ever forget.
The one thing I'll always remember most about that fateful
day was my son, who was three years old at the time, looking
at me with his big brown eyes asking me the dreaded but inevitable...
"Why Daddy?"
For lack of anything better, I gave him the best good guy,
bad guy analogy I could come with at the time and then, for whatever
reason, I ended it with, "as bad as this appears to be,
we have a lot to be thankful for."
Hoping that was that, I quickly began thinking of something
else we could do or talk about to get his mind off the horror
he'd just witnessed on television.
Suddenly, I heard him ask...
"Like what Daddy?"
"Like what, what?" I replied.
"Like what we have to be thankful for?" he asked.
"Great," I thought to myself, "I thought we
were done with this."
"Well," I said, "we can be thankful that you,
me and mommy are okay. A lot of little boys and girls lost their
mommies or daddies today. Some of them lost both."
He thought for a moment and then asked, "What else Daddy?"
"Well," I replied, "we can be thankful that
so many people were able to get out of those buildings alive
before they collapsed."
"What else Daddy?" he asked.
"Well..." I hesitated, desperately trying to think
of something else.
"Come on Daddy," he said, "what else we have
to be thankful for?"
"Well," I said, "we can be thankful for all
the brave fire fighters, paramedics and police officers who are
helping those who need it."
"And the fire fighters have fire trucks with lights
and sirens, huh Daddy?" he asked with a smile on his face.
"Yes son, they do," I replied, returning his smile.
"What else Daddy?" he asked.
"Well son," I said, "we can be thankful that
we have a strong military to protect us."
"And they have tanks, huh Daddy?" he asked, this
time with a really big smile (for whatever reason, he *really*
likes tanks :-)).
"Yes son, they do," I replied, "and they have
lots of them."
"What else we have to be thankful for Daddy?" he
asked...
As his "grilling" continued (which at the time
seemed like it went on forever :-)), and the list of things we
had to be thankful for grew larger and larger and larger, I could
*feel*, rather dramatically, our thoughts shift from those of
doubt, uncertainty, fear and worry, to those of certainty and
faith.
Finally...
I got it! :-)
You see, all too often, when something's not "right"
in our lives, or something's not the way we'd prefer it to be,
even though it may be only a *tiny* portion of our overall experience,
we tend to focus all our mental energy on it causing us to lose
our perspective and, in the process, we virtually insure we'll
get more of the same... more of what we *don't* want.
On the other hand...
Gratitude forces us to focus on what's right in our lives,
on the things that are the way we'd prefer them to be, which,
chances are, are the overwhelming majority of our experience
at any given time, causing us to put things in their proper perspective
and thereby virtually insuring we'll get more of the same...
more of what we *do* want!
Since that unforgettable day, I've repeated this simple exercise
dozens of times...
Whenever I feel thoughts of doubt, uncertainty, fear or worry
starting to creep in, I simply ask myself what I have to be thankful
for right *now* and then I keep asking...
What else...
What else...
What else...
It's never failed yet to almost instantly help me regain
a "constructive" perspective and replace those "destructive"
thoughts of doubt, uncertainty, fear and worry with "constructive"
thoughts of certainty and faith.
Thanks son. :-)
-----
Tony Mase is a serious student of the works of Wallace D.
Wattles and the publisher of "The Science of Abundant Life"
ebook by Wallace D. Wattles...
============================================================
"The Science of Abundant Life" by Wallace D. Wattles
"The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles
together
with Wallace D. Wattles' "The Science of Being Well",
"The
Science of Being Great", "How to Promote Yourself",
"The New
Science of Living and Healing" and "Hell-fire Harrison".
Click Here => http://hop.clickbank.net/?veronica44/tsoal
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