We normally take a lot for granted in our lives. For instance, we naturally assume that within reason on any day we have the freedom to leave our house and go where we please. We take for granted that we can drop into a cafe for a coffee or drop into a restaurant for lunch or dinner and that we can meet up with friends and family when we do so.
Photo by Max Garaev: https://www.pexels.com/photo/profile-of-woman-in-windy-landscape-12317881/
We take that freedom for granted. I could go on and on and so could you about what we took for granted before the coming of COVID-19. We can now see how wonderful that freedom is and our response to that can be one of gratefulness and joy. Think of everything that you took for granted before the virus and now consciously within your heart remember to always appreciate what you took for granted.
I have a partner who without fail every morning when we spend our meditation/sharing time together starts off by saying thank-you to everything she can think of - she goes on sometimes for minutes saying thank-you for everything in her life. This has the effect of making her a very open, wonderful, appreciative person who almost always finds life interesting and often beautiful. Consequently, she communicates that enthusiasm to everyone she meets and is, therefore, a ‘gift’ to others.
She tells me that she wasn’t always like this but she learned as a sort of inner discipline to be grateful for everything in her life after she lost all her property and money in the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. She realised that that experience could either ‘break her or make her’, and she resolved to respond positively to this disastrous setback. She realised she’d been too money and success focused and so she resolved to begin to live differently so one of the attitudes that she deliberately cultivated was that of gratefulness.