"We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is", Kurt Vonnegut once penned
A novel by James Lee Burke, in which Vietnam figures prominently, brought an encounter in Bangkok with a guy from California to mind. He had fallen in love with a young Vietnamese and now didn't know what to do: Should he leave his wife and children and join his new love in Vietnam? I told him not to do it, that falling in love with exotic women had probably more to do with his longings and desires than with the reality of daily life.
Needless to say, I haven't the foggiest idea whether I was right or not. I simply told him what was then going through my mind. I'm immensely thankful for your advice, he said to me two days later, when he checked out of the hotel to return to California.
When, some years ago, I told a friend of mine, a resident of Chiang Mai from Chicago, that I was aware that to be grateful was important but, sadly, I did not feel grateful at all. If you're not grateful, he said, you deprive yourself of lots of good feelings.
It goes without saying that his comment did not change my feelings yet it had an impact on my thinking. Differently put: I can direct my thinking, I'm able to decide what to focus on. I nowadays make regular efforts to remind myself of what I could be grateful for – and invariably something comes to mind, and makes me feel good.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen