365 Grateful

365 Grateful - A down to earth sharing by Sister Carmen Kee last Saturday left me thinking. Sounds like a rather simple thing to do and to a certain extent I was doubtful if it was overly simplified. And, one thing I learnt from Bro Tan the Google Jolly Good Fellow: Well there is only one way to find out...

So, I decided to cast my doubts aside and gave it a try. Just my 1st 3 days doing 365 Grateful with my first attempt on Sunday, 28th July gave me some insights. Very subtle ones - by being consciously grateful for the people around you and the surroundings tend to slow you down (in a good way) to be more appreciative, to take more notice and to a certain extent encourage you to see things that you previously would not have even bothered to.

My first 365 Grateful photo gave me the joy to be grateful to have a very caring boyfriend, someone I can rely upon and someone I can hold hands with - a simple yet profound expression of love.

My second 365 Grateful photo was a reflection of how the bustling environment at Redhill Market that I frequent thousand of times let me realised how important it is to feel "alive" and be happy (despite Monday blues creeping in).

 

My third 365 Grateful photo was a joyful realisation that despite perceived challenges to go on a vegetarian diet - you will somewhat find a way and I was extremely fortunate that today during lunch catchup with friends at a Japanese restaurant, the waiter was kind enough to recommend me some vegetarian option. I love Japanese food and never bothered to order vegetable tempura (of course!). Only to realise even a pretty little leaf can be made into tempura.

 

Well, I am not quite there yet to fully unleash the potential of Mindful Gratefulness but I would encourage you to be consciously grateful; for we are really, very fortunate in many many ways. Time to cast the fog of ignorance aside and take baby steps to say thanks to small little things that come our way.

 

With that, I would like to extend abundance of metta to the couple at Famous Delights in Redhill Market that went the extra mile to clean their cooking utensils and get vegetarian ingredients to cook me a full vegetarian meal today. In their own words, "We need to respect our customer's dietary requirements and we will make sure we clean our utensils to cook you a clean vegetarian meal". Those words were music to my ears especially when I went to a few stalls asking for the same but to no avail.

 

Next wave of metta to my ex-manager who has been exceptionally inspiring to me but is now facing difficult times in his new business, may he finds courage to strive on. Last but not least, joy of metta to all beings in the world (yourself included - thanks for reading). This is what I called - Save the Best to Last! :)