::::::::
There is a lesson for all of us in the way that a young lady who was both blind and deaf still expressed a wonderous joy in living and a gratitude to God in having been given a profoundly beautiful soul.
I was driving to work this morning, mindlessly flipping radio stations when I accidentally hit the AM button. Suddenly I found myself listening to a minister broadcasting a sermon about gratitude.
He spoke extensively of how we should look for things in our past to be grateful for and then refocus that gratitude to our present circumstances.
Even if we happen to be going through tough times right now, he said, we can find a multitude of things to be grateful for each day.
He then went on to quote a poem I had never heard before by Helen Keller entitled "On Herself". It reads:
They took away what should have been my eyes
(But I remembered Milton's Paradise)
They took away what should have been my ears
(Beethoven came and wiped away my tears)
They took away what should have been my tongue
(But I had talked to God when I was young)
He would not let them take away my soul---
Possessing that, I still possess the whole.
Her sentiments struck me in my heart. Here a young lady that was both blind and deaf still expressed a wonderous joy in living and a gratitude to God in having been given a profoundly beautiful soul.
She instinctively knew that it was not what she did not possess, but what she owned in abundance---her self, her God-given inner light---that was most important.
I thought about Helen Keller all the way to my job, and when I got there I took a moment to just sit in the stillness before the harried day began and look around my office. My eyes happened to fall on my jumbo-sized desk calendar.
It was flipped, of course, to November with the word "CHALLENGE" across the top of the page as the motivational word of the month. Then I noticed what was printed in much smaller letters underneath that word----surprisingly, a quote from Helen Keller.
It reads: "When you face the sun, the shadows always fall behind you."
Well, I'm not big on coincidences. I believe that this life is a concerted effort between us and God. So, I could certainly not ignore the message He has given me today, and I just wanted to share it with everyone.
Be Grateful.
