How Could I Ask For More?

It is so easy in these troubled times to forget to be thankful.

Even before the current crisis, and stretching back through the earliest origins of human-kind, it was easy to look around a troubled landscape and wonder what there was to be thankful for. There have always been famines and plagues and wars and conquests.

But even in the face of these seemingly indomitable trials, there is almost always something to be thankful for.

And it is important for us to pause and to be thankful. I am often surprised at just how uplifting it can be to become conscious of something I am grateful for, and to deliberately say thanks for it.

It does not have to be a long, well-composed, well thought-out mental dialogue. A simple, internal “Thank you, God” will suffice.

Our lives are filled with blessings too numerous to count. We just take them for granted because they are nearly always with us. A cozy bed to sleep in. The song of a bird. A smile from a stranger. A soothing cup of coffee. Someone reaching for your hand. A dog wagging its tail at seeing you. A beloved old song coming on the radio. The smell of baking bread.

We are literally surrounded every moment of our lives with things to be grateful for.

That is why this song by Cindy Morgan nearly always wrecks me when I hear it. It is a reminder to me that I have so much to be grateful for … and that I am not nearly grateful enough. I do say “Thank you God” many, many times throughout my day.

But I could say it every moment of my life and it would still not be often enough.

Given all that I have, how could I ask for more?