Dancing Elephants Press Prompt 8 of 52

What Determines If You're Grateful For Something?

Are you more grateful today than you were a year ago?

Is this the answer:

“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”

— Brene Brown

I'm afraid I have to disagree in the sense that you can't put a label on people like that.

One day our son, who was about one and one half years old, was told by my youngest sister that a leaf had been carried in on the bottom of someone's shoe; she said it was a bug. We didn't catch what was being said for a couple of days. The point is that he wouldn't have known to be grateful, scared, or just anxious.

It's been my experience in life to grow up around the have-nots and then to be plunged into the world of the haves. In each case, I reacted differently. But having started as a homeless kid, you're grateful for whatever you have. However, much later in life, when I was with those that everything in abundance, I accepted it as "the way things are." That is, until you have the time to reflect on your circumstances.

As a kid, I had nothing but the clothes on my body and the food I would find for our next meal. That will teach you to be grateful for anything and everything you have.

Our circumstances have changed, but we recognize how grateful we are at the end of each day. If we teach our children and others to be thankful, our road home will be blessed, and our souls will be refreshed.