Friday, December 12, 2008

Gratitude... what I learnt

Gratitude….
I was flying back after a seminar from Boise yesterday; I met a phenomenal lady by name Joan.
Joan is 70 years old and lives in Rocklin and has diabetes taking insulin. She has gone through unbelievable personal setbacks all her life, both socially and medically. Yet, she had a successful career as a banker, progressing from a teller and voluntarily retiring at the age of 61 as a regional manager, raising three children who are all well settled and being diligent with her finances that she is fine supporting herself now.
She was flying back from Boise visiting her daughter’s family for thanksgiving. While telling her story, she have me three pearls of her happiness….
1. She has a “Gratitude Diary” – Everyday she writes in that diary, why she is grateful for that day in her life. Even in the worst of days, she will look for a silver lining in her life and write it down.
2. She has a “God’s problem solving bag” – if she has a problem that she cannot solve, she takes it from her mind, writes it in a piece of paper and puts it in the bag and prays to God and says, “God, I know you will take care of it, because I cannot!” and goes to sleep.
3. If she is upset with someone, even if it is the other person’s fault, she does not let that exceed one hour. She forgets about that incident within 1 hour, so that the rest of the day is bright as ever.

I learnt so much from her. She checks her blood sugar up to 7 times a day and her HbA1c is 7.1%. Her doctor had mentioned about the insulin pump, but she did not know much about it. When I explained about the pump, she was so excited and said that she wanted to go for it and that is her resolution for the New Year!

I told, her that I am thankful to God to have made me come across such a ‘Fine YOUNG lady’ – young in heart and thought process than many of us can ever be!!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is great story! If every person did what she did, the people in this world would be so much better to each other and of course have a better meaningful life. AGAIN Thanks for posting this great thought and story to the blog