Attitude of Gratitude
Today, I went to an ESL party at the college where I teach. Students and teachers gathered to share in the food and fellowship of many cultures. While I was sitting there enjoying empanadas from Colombia, dim sum from Korea, and tuna pasta salad from America, a student came up to me. “Mrs. Kern! I’m so glad to finally see you,” he said to me. “You taught me ESL Writing two years ago. I never see you in the halls and so I thought you were no longer teaching here. I’ve been wanting to thank you so much for teaching me. I’ve taken English Composition 101 and now 102 — I’ve received A’s in both classes and now I’m going to be transferring to a four-year college, maybe Bucknell. I know your teaching was so instrumental in my success. I was so afraid I wouldn’t get to say ‘Thank you’ to you before I graduated.”
Wow! That felt great! Not because his words stroked my ego — but because I heard him say that I made a difference in his world. That’s what really matters — that’s what it is all about — that’s why I’m here in this world: To Make A Difference in the Lives of Others.
No matter what you do in your daily world, I am sure that you, too, make a difference. Think about it and when you have come up with a few ways your life has helped others’ lives, give thanks that you were given that opportunity to help and to see how what you do matters.
Earlier this week, I received a package from a friend. She had sent me clips of her articles that have been published. A few years ago, I encouraged her to start writing. As her writing coach, I helped her see the unique gift that God had blessed her with and how, through her writing, she could help others who suffer with a chronic illness, just as she does. Her book, The Many Faces of The Wolf, is featured on my blog under Publications. I was thrilled to read my friend’s published articles. And, again, I was humbled by the note she wrote me: “These writings occurred because you encouraged me and believed in a skill (gift) I did not know that God had given me.”
Tonight, I am so grateful for the student I saw today and for the friend whose package I received this week. You see, I’ve been thinking I should stop teaching, writing, and coaching new writers, and return to full-time work in the corporate world. Finances are tight, as they are for most people these days, and that corporate salary, once obtained, could make a difference in our monthly budget.
But that difference pales in comparison to the difference I seem to be making through The Writer’s Cottage. That’s all I need to know to make my decision to stick with the vision for The Writer’s Cottage that God gave to me on that river bank nearly 10 years ago on June 2, 2000.
And for that vision and all that has occurred since then, I truly have an Attitude of Gratitude.
I wish you many wonderful hours and days and weeks and months and years of making a difference in this world in whatever you do.
~~Sue