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Writer's picturecamikahayes

A Weird Kind of Thankful

I believe that a lot of how our lives play out, has to do with how we view the world. It may not be the determining factor in whether or not we are successful people, but more likely to affect how we act and interact with the world.


So, for example, during this pandemic there's been a lot of difficult things happening. Many people are worried about bringing home a sickness that is pretty contagious because they don't want to overwhelm hospital systems, and unnecessarily burden nurses and doctors etc. Some people rely on predictable routines to keep their emotional and mental health balanced. Some of us are just used to things being done a certain way, and it's unsettling and inconvenient to suddenly have to shift everything we know. It can be scary for us.



In the middle of what can seem like a very scary upheaval, when everything is different, it might be most necessary to count our blessings, but can also be the most difficult time to do so. It's really easy for things to spiral downward when we're sad or stressed. Everything just feels so out-of-control. Which is probably why I'm such a weirdo since I'm feeling thankful for certain things.


How can I be thankful in middle of mayhem? Well obviously, I love mayhem. Okay, not really. I'm not liking all this upheaval any more than the average person, but I'm finding myself more aware of things. I'm learning new things about people's lives and the struggles they may go through. I'm appreciating that it's teaching me to think more and remember that I can't see someone's heart or struggles from the outside. I have to get to know them.


It's not always fun to learn what you thought was wrong. It's a tough pill to swallow and only the strong can truly tackle that. I HATE being wrong. I also hate learning that my ways of thinking, or sometimes even my ways of trying to help people might have hurt them instead. That's devastating! I could decide never to try and help anyone again for fear of hurting their feelings, but that's an overreaction. I have to do the uncomfortable, hard thing, and try to learn how to do it better. I can't run from my mistakes, no matter how much I might want to.


I'm super thankful for technology. Imagine if we had a pandemic without internet. With only land-line telephones? We are sooo blessed that we have the ability to entertain ourselves, even if we have old technology like VCRs. We have CD's for music, and online chats. We can interact with people all over the world, even in the middle of quarantine. That never would have been the case without technology. We wouldn't have been able to order things for delivery to the house, to try and keep each other just a tad bit safer. We wouldn't have Zoom that allows us to connect to one another for free, to see each other face-to-face.


We are so much more connected, that sometimes it's easy to take it for granted. We feel alone even with all this technology around us. Maybe it's because we don't have the privacy we need to have heartfelt discussions with friends. Maybe it feels like our friends forgot all about us. Maybe family won't let us talk to friends. It's okay, if you're not feeling super grateful for technology., if you hate having to stay home. Maybe home isn't that great, or maybe it's just not what you want it to be. Not everyone is going to enjoy family time. For that, I'm sorry. I wish there were only good healthy families for everyone, that everyone could feel blessed to have each other in their lives. Some people are broken, sometimes it's our families.

Hugs, cuz sometimes you just need them.


I'm grateful that I have internet, and I hope if you need to hear this that it finds you: You are worthy, you are special, you are amazing, you are unique. You have so much to offer and add to this world. The world is a better place with you in it. That is all true. "But," you think, "you don't even know me". That's probably true, but it doesn't mean all those things I said are untrue. Every human has value. Every human deserves to live. Every human has an affect on the world, whether they know it or not. It's up to you to decide in what way you want to affect the world. Small things, like holding a door open for someone, count. Being pleasant to someone counts. It all makes a difference. Imagine all those "small" acts over the course of a lifetime. The web of people you are able to affect or help is actually pretty big! So each of us can make a positive impact in the world.


I'm thankful for the people all over the world who care. They care what your life is like, they care about true equality. They care about making the world a better place. It's amazing to see so many people coming together to create change. Sometimes it's not always in the best of ways, sometimes our methods aren't super. But we are trying, and we can learn how to improve our methods. I think seeing so many good hearts in the world is most definitely cause for celebration! When I choose to notice the amazing positive things happening, our futures look so much brighter.


P.S. Um, I'm also really thankful for video games. K, that is all (at least for now).

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