Tag Archives: gratitude

Gratitude day 7 (These days are not in a row. I gave that up long-time ago)

So when you attempt to start a good habit, don’t be like me one year ago. Follow-through with it. I tried this gratitude experiment I read about last year. The point was simple. Find at least one thing to be grateful for each day. While driving around today, I swear I saw a sign that asked “How many things can you find to be grateful for in the next ___ miles?” I don’t remember where I saw it, or how many miles I had to think up things I’m grateful for. I can tell you, I didn’t list my memory, because I promptly forgot.

But not before I forgot to be grateful for a job, Since I was driving about as part of my job.

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QFBR: Measure of a Man

Person: Martin Greenfield; Maximilian Grunfeld
Thing: This book—Measure of a Man; a well made suit
Place: Pavlovo, Czechoslovakia; Concentration camps—Auschwitz, Buna, Buchenwald, Baltimore, Brooklyn… Various locales.
Idea: Grace makes an improbable life wonderfully possible.

Martin’s life started in Czechoslovakia. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, but Martin says their faith wasn’t especially zealous. Life was good. They worked their own farm, took care of their livestock and even employed workers.

Then the trains arrived… and scuttled Martin’s family away. His mom, baby brother, younger sister and grandparents were sent in one direction. His other sister—taken away as well.

And then there were two. Martin and his dad. But they, too, were separated.

Martin never saw them again.

He survived Auschwitz, brutal marches through the snow, and Buchenwald, which is where Americans liberated them.

Martin’s main question through the succession of atrocities: “Where was God?”

His life took a few twists and turns after liberation–a stint in the Czech army, making a living as a cigarette runner, and meeting young ladies and having fun.

Martin was working as an auto mechanic when a letter arrived from the United States. He got someone to translate it, and learned he had extended family across the Atlantic.

Eventually, he settled in Brooklyn, worked for the suit maker GGG, a company with a client roster that included many high-profile Hollywood names.

Martin married, worked his way up the GGG ladder, and eventually purchased the company and re-named it.

Some have said Martin’s top-notch, made to measure suits are the best in the world. Repeat clients include U.S. presidents, Hollywood stars, athletes, and late night TV hosts.

Martin, whose family was almost decimated by hate, now runs the business with his sons. He notes how grace afforded the opportunity to create another family to love and nurture. Though there were MANY opportunities for death to smother him during World War II, it wasn’t able to snuff his existence.

After decades of hard work, opportunity, and success, and a bar mitzvah at age 80, Martin says he’s “left with nothing but gratitude for my life. Some things, it turns out, are beyond measure.”

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Day 2: Pleasure in a warm blanket

I’m grateful for warm blankets on cool fall days. It’s a plus if that blanket is fresh from the dryer. What a comforting sensation to have while self-swaddling in covers on crisp days or nights. The feelings of warmth, security, exhilaration, relaxation, joy, and cozy thankfulness are most welcome. It’s so beautiful to keep re-discovering such a simple pleasure still has the same effect as it did when I was a child. As an adult who is determined not to grow crotchety, such reminders are appreciated-always.

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Day 1: I’m grateful for decent health.

It seems life is a collection of great memories, friendships and lessons. It’s also a collection of ailments and pills as people march toward death. Yes, time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping… nudging away my youth while hoary strands keep pushing through more hair follicles. Even while thinking about what I would change about my life if I could re-live the past 10 years, I’m still so grateful to have decent health. Even with prescriptions and supplement orders through the years, I’m grateful for decent health. I walk. I talk. I laugh. I love. I live. And I appreciate it all.

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Today: A good day to start a new habit

It takes 21 days to cement a habit, so I’m deciding to try a new one: The habit of gratefulness.

Every day someone gets shot, stabbed, raped, killed or hurt in some other way. Some perverted cad takes inappropriate liberties with a minor; some jealous person hurts an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend… then commits suicide.   Sometimes folks find out the arrangement with a sex buddy isn’t as exclusive as he or she thinks it should be—so the person somehow threatens the “wayward” buddy… and catches a case.

It gets overwhelming at times, but I refuse to get salty.   I don’t want to forget  life’s niceties:  family, friends, and simple pleasures like memories of  warm sunshine on my face spiked with the perfect breeze, which can create a perfect temperature. Other niceties include hearty laughter after a witty joke shared with friends, and outdoor concerts with music I really vibe with down to my bones. Observing smiley parents and carefree children frolicking with newly twisted balloon animals, and having conversation with folks who ooze kindness complete that experience.

There’s so much bad news everywhere, but I’m determined to maintain a grateful attitude no matter what I hear, read, or see every day.

It isn’t always easy.

To stave off and eliminate encroaching cynicism, I decided to undertake the gratitude challenge. I don’t even know where I got this idea. It was probably from a mixture of places: random inspirational readings, Facebook posts, and the constant back-of-mind reinforcement from my childhood (I went to church almost EVERY week growing up).  During those early years, I learned that gratitude is key to the Christian life, and later learned it’s woven throughout other viewpoints as well. I don’t recall if I read a social media challenge somewhere that encouraged folks to  find one thing to be grateful for daily, and I decided to write three—or if I encountered a challenge that encouraged folks to jot down three things for 21 days to inspire the habit of choosing happiness.

Whatever the case, I started writing three a day in October.  It was my intent to only write three things for 21 days, but I’m still going with this. Must be a habit.

Anyway, these humble entries represent some of my self-reminders to stay grateful, to cherish the simple things, to know there’s something to be grateful for at all times.

Might as well start on Thanksgiving.

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