The Ladder of Gratitude
The greatest quest in every life is the search for happiness. Some people spend great amounts of money looking for it. Some grab hold of other people and try to wring it out of them. Some give years of their lives in barter for it. Some run down a road or two and not seeing any hint of it, give up looking for it.
Is it really that rare or are we looking in the wrong places? You see, there is a door marked GRATITUDE that we pass so very often as we open other doors in search of the one that contains happiness. Oh, we know that the door marked GRATITUDE is there all right because every time we pass it we make a solemn mental vow to come back and open it as soon as we find happiness and have something to be grateful for and so we continue our frantic pursuit of happiness.
We are trying to pick apples using a trampoline instead of a ladder. Oh, you’ll manage to grab an apple or two jumping up and down until you are too exhausted to eat one but you can have every apple in the tree and the time to enjoy them if you use a ladder instead. The trampoline is the way we have been going about it but gratitude is the ladder. It’s the first thing that you see when you open the door marked GRATITUDE. That ladder is the only way to get to happiness. Happiness exists on another level. It doesn’t exist on the level of frustration and doubt and complaining. If it did, those things would make you happy. Happiness exists on a level that only the ladder of gratefulness can take you up to. Every step up that ladder makes you consider the good where you only saw bad. Each step reminds you of the inherent good in people. Each step reminds you that there is always more blessings than adversities in your life. Each step beckons you to think with your heart too. Each step implores you to drop some of your baggage. What are you waiting for? Open that door, grab that ladder and start climbing. It’s a Heaven of a journey and it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.
©2010 All Rights Reserved, Patrick McBride
www.PatrickInspires.com
Leave a Reply