I Believe in Gratefulness

"In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy." -Albert Clarke

I believe in gratefulness, that all we have is all we need, and our personal happiness is created through choosing to be grateful. I understand that we are all faced with hardship, we are limited, and confined, forced to make do with insufficiency and obstacles. But I'd like to believe that we are better for it, that we grow into ourselves through the hardship and struggle we overcome. I believe there is strength in choosing to be grateful. 

My parents came to America with nothhing; fresh after marriage they left their lives behind in India for the promise of a better future. Looking at the success they now hold, their humble beginnings are not often appreciated or remembered, but I will never forget. My mother was only 20 years old, scared, miles away from her family, and faced with a great magnitude of new responsibilities in a foreign world. My father was in over his head, trying to support my mother and himself, working multiple jobs with almost no rest, no sleep, and barely enough to survive another day. Yet every night they would thank God for the food they had before them, the roof over their heads, and the fact that they had each other, their gratefulness was their salvation.  

My father worked as a pizza delivery boy for Dominos, as one of his many part time jobs, he earned minimum wage and was forced to work the night shifts almost every week. But one night his delivery almost took his life. He had just arrived outside a customer's home and was walking towards the main street when the was stopped by a man unidentifiable behind him holding a knife to his neck. The man demanded all the pizza boxes, all my father's money, and complete cooperation, he obliged with only my mother's image in his thoughts keeping him going, keeping him constant. My father walked away with nothing more than momentary fear and a deep gash, with his appreciation for life fully renewed. 

Today my dad is a vice president of marketing in Hitachi Data Systems, but his achievements have not erased the memory of where he began, where he and my mom had come from. They always believed that gratefulness is the key to happiness, and with little to be grateful for, they lived lives of contentment and appreciation. I think that is where I get my sense of gratitude. I am grateful for the life my brother and I enjoy today, and I realize the sacrifice, the hardship, the difficulty that my parents overcame to bring us where we are now. But more importantly I am grateful for the people that raised me with such strong values and morals and purpose, and blazed a trail of pure joy and love that I wish to follow. 

I believe in gratefulness, that all I have is more than enough, and I will continue to count my blessings as long as I live.