Make Gratitude Your Attitude
A grumpy guy finds a new sign
Here is the audio file for today’s Morning Journal:
Fr. Joseph’s memorable story
I woke up grumpy yesterday and was nursing a resentment as I walked to church from the condo—without a car, because Darlene had taken Pebbles on a day trip to Boothbay.
Maybe I’d find a sign during Mass. Maybe the day would turn out okay in spite of myself.
Sure enough, Fr. Joseph Osunde’s homily included this story he’d heard growing up in Nigeria:
There was a boy who sat in a public place every day seeking alms. He held a sign that read, “I am blind, please help me.” People who passed by were moved and dropped coins, but it wasn’t enough to change his life.
One day a man read the boy’s sign, took it away, and rewrote it.
On the sign he wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I can’t see it.” When people read that new sign something shifted. They became aware of the gift of sight they had been taking for granted, and their hearts opened.
From that sense of gratitude they gave more generously.
Fr. Joseph centered his homily on gratitude, exhorting us several times with this instruction: “Make gratitude your attitude.”
Afterward, I noticed how much my mood had changed by the time I left the church to meet my Uber ride.
I imagined that I was the blind boy in the story, whose sign might have said, “My wife took the car, please help me.” What if someone managed to change my sign to read, “Today is a beautiful day in Ocean Park, but I can’t see it.”
In any event, yesterday I became aware of many gifts.
My Uber driver, a young man named Rob, told me about his cool startup, Cult & Society. This morning I bought a jar of his Everyday Styler for hair—not my usual personal product, but it might up my tonsorial game!
My daughter Roo and I had a brisk walk with her bouncing dog Finn to Ocean Perk for a coffee and illuminating convo.
Roo, her husband Mike, grandson Ryan and I had breakfast in a booth at Lucky Loggers in Saco. I had the pancake Senior Special—I love that it’s identical to the Kids Special—with a side of real maple syrup.
Ryan and I went bowling and played pinball at The Gutter in Biddeford, then had ice cream across the street at the Sweetcream Dairy.
My daughter Sarah joined me for tea at the cottage next to a fire in the fireplace. More illuminating conversation. My two daughters are wise, loving, and delightfully unique women.
Darlene returned home after dark with sparkly additions to her huge fabric collage of our little dog Sophie. We watched “Presumed Innocent” by the fire.
And so it was that a new sign changed my mood, my day, and maybe my life.
I’m on the lookout for more!
