Placing Your Thumb In Front of the Sun

Have you ever looked straight at the sun? If not, don't, it's bad for your eyes. but when you look directly at the sun, your entire field of view is filled with that one blinding light. You can't see anything else: not the stars or the blue sky or the clouds or the moon or the plane flying by.

This is what staring into the sun looks like. Don't try this
at home, kids.

What happens when you block that single source of blinding light? Something as small as your thumb can do it. Suddenly, you see everything else. You see that the thing that was causing you pain was a small part of the sky, and you can now see all the beauty around it.

Gratitude is kind of like that. It is very easy to be distracted by a small number of negative things, painful things, difficult things, and to not notice all the tremendous blessings that we have.

This became clear to me after I posted this article. In it, I describe some things that people have said recently which were particularly hurtful. The response I got over the next few days really put things into focus. There are maybe 5 or 6 occasions recently on which people whom I thought were friends surprised me by choosing to listen to rumors rather than believe me, but five times as many people reached out to me one way or another to express support, and hundreds have expressed support over the past couple months, and that is really where my focus should be.

I am deeply grateful that I have such a wide array of amazing people around me: Many wonderful people whom I have known for quite some time, and a surprising number of new friends whom I have only met since this crisis began, and who saw what I did and appreciate it.

But that's not all I have to be thankful for.

• I am generally healthy and active.
• I have the ability to support myself and my family in a reasonable lifestyle.
• I have a wonderful daughter who is absolutely brilliant and beautiful. 
• I have a great wife who supports me in many ways. 
• I work with a company of some of the best people I have ever met. 
• I have an excellent game store right around the corner from me.
• I am well respected in my local community for the work I have done here.

So, really, things are pretty good. What do you have to be most grateful for? Feel free to share in the comments!