Awareness, gratitude, taking for granted

I woke up this morning and once again I remembered, I am not sick. Once again I realized how important it is (and, sometimes, how difficult) to be as aware of our blessings in this life as we are of our problems. It is one of the advantages of asthma, I always think, that it can alternate you between sickness and health quickly enough for you to remember what it was like to be sick when you are well, what it was like to be well when you are sick. In this it is unlike any chronic condition I know of.

I was sick for several weeks in September and October, this time not suddenly but in a long slow decline. Then, with a little help from my friends (thank you Neal Rogers!) I turned the corner, but it was a long slow climb back. That length of the pattern this time made it a little harder than usual to remember. So now once in a while I awaken — in more sense of the word than one! — and realizer that I am taking for granted the fact that breath comes easily, and sleep, and true rest.

I wouldn’t post this here if I didn’t think that in some sense or another it must be true for us all. We don’t all have asthma, any more than we all have any particular difficulty, but, as my father’s mother used to say, “everybody rides the mule.” That is, we all have something to contend with. But we all have reason to rejoice, as well, probably more reason than we are usually aware of.

6 thoughts on “Awareness, gratitude, taking for granted

  1. Thank you very much for this reminder Frank !

    Looking through my bookshelves today to see if to find the book by Hank Wesselman…. I remember the story of Kahuna….But could not find it though. Maybe to have given the book away as to have done many times before.

    BTW: I am reading a old book first printed in 1968, London/U.K. and recommended by Charles to read (Franks friend Charles Sides). And I am having the same taste in books.
    The book is titled: ” Here and Hereafter ” by Anthony Borgia. His books available to buy on Amazon. The two first ones printed in the 1950s.
    Anthony Borgia is talking with “the other side” likewise.

    And quote: The strong attachment to the physical body that exists in the minds of so many people would be largely broken down if those same people were to become fully aquainted with spirit truths.
    Our friends who are in communication with us and who have knowledge of the facts of life in the spirit world, have given to the physical body ITS(underlined) proper position in relation to THEIR( underlined)on earth and their life AFTER(underlined) in the spirit world. They know that their physical body is a vehicle for their spirit body while upon earth.
    When the time comes for them to leave the earth world, and with it their earthly body, the latter is treated as somehing that is forever done with. It has become utterly useless for them( some clinging to their bodies). It has been cast off— and our friends are never sorry to cast it off ! What then becomes of it they are not the least bit concerned.
    They have no reverence for it. But so many people enshroud this cast-off body with a holy solemnity to which it is not entitled.

    Okay, and here comes something told which I do like:
    Let us put the matter in another light. Who is there upon earth who has any deep respect and reverence for some old, useless, worn-out, shabby garment ? It is finished and done with. Away with it, and let us see no more of it( I am having a hard time in telling my husband about the same, he is pretty old-fashioned)….On page 27 in the same book:
    In the spirit world we are free of all corporeal worries IF the mind easily “let it go.” The content in the book telling us to be our own “Judge” all the way and nobody else….BUT, we are here to learn Compassion, a soul purpose, according to the book (thinking about all deceases, and also Alzheimers, likewise).

    I do believe in what Edgar Cayce says of us ” taking upon ourselves” the garment which fitting us the most.

    Bliss & Blessings, Inger Lise

  2. Frank & Inger Lise–both your messages are good ones for this holiday season. Thanks so much, and best to you both.
    Jane

    1. Jane & all…. Thank you.
      One way or the other today, in the afternoon, sitting down to watch a TV-Program called ” The Theory of Everything.”
      Very seldom I am watching TV in the afternoon. BUT, it happened to be a biography about the life of Stephen Hawkins ! WHAT A LIFE !
      And THEN, thinking about Helen Keller likewise…… There is absolutely incredible destinies, and miraculous ! AND then, thinking by myself right now about us ordinary and common peoples, with a socalled ordinary life to ponder what`s all about exactly ? How come somebody CHOOSE to be born blind and deaf ( and even worse. long ago, back THEN, it is ofcourse better healt care nowadays in the western world at least )?
      According to the Edgar Cayce Readings it is because ALL was not meant to be in the first place and therefore all of us must reconsider what we have ” made” from ” the beginning of time. ”

      Hm, I am pondering about my own belief & faith when it comes to our existence in the recent days obviously.

      But anyway, wishing you, Frank & All a Merry Christmas…..according to Edgar Cayce there has always been ” a Christ-Mass ” long before the birth of Jesus Christ.”

      B & B, Inger Lise

  3. Frank,
    Glad you’re feeling better … and glad you chose to share your thoughts.

    For most of my life I felt that ‘gratitude’ meant being grateful to someone/something for what I had. I trace that to my Christian upbringing … still feel it’s a useful belief system for those who choose it.

    But in recent years I’ve grown to see that gratitude is important as a ‘push’ to look at my own individual “reasons to rejoice”; too much of the time I focus on what’s wrong or not the way I want. ‘Showing gratitude’ by regularly looking at, recognizing (even admitting), and working to become more aware of what’s ‘right’ in life sounds mundane and trivial. But (IMHO) it’s a very important step in the directions Rita and TGU point out for us.
    Jim

  4. Frank and All,
    I too have been in a recovery mode this week, and I can’t help but think the cycle through this virus was actually a purposeful slow-down to absorb and integrate and rest from the hectic holiday period we’ve manufactured.

    I always appreciate the thoughts that arrive here, from Frank and all the commentary as well. This morning as I read through your latest comments I felt a connection we have together in your our searching to understand. I am grateful to be on the path with you all!
    John

  5. Hi Frank; Craig here, borrowing Susan’s computer, as mine has been “down” since even before your wonderful “A.I.G.” weekend (I use the take-home exercise every night to drift off to sleep–have noticed some quite interesting dreams, and occ’nl OBEs).

    Interesting that the subject of “gratitude” has come up; again it’s a synchronistic connect for me. Recently, I’ve re-read the Dannion Brinkley series of books, and he speaks of the importance of “belief, prayer, choice and love”. I’ve been doing his suggested morning exercise of expressing my gratitude for what I have, before getting out of bed. Times have been pretty bumpy since Spring/Summer, and I appreciate that others still place importance on “faith” and “belief” (of course, I’m not speaking of the “blind” variety, of “following around someone” who seems to be an authority on the subject, be it “faith” or “logic”!) It’s kinda what keeps me going on some of the rougher days…

    Thanks again for sharing your thoughts…hope to make it back to TMI some day, when funds allow. And also a belated “hello” to Inger Lise, John D., Jim, Dirk, and any others who I met at “A.I.G.”, who also visit this blog!

    Craig

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