Gratitude

“Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present...” – C.S. Lewis

It’s funny spending a holiday overseas in a place where they do not celebrate, or perhaps even know about, a day that is so important to your own culture. It seems as though this experience makes you realize the truth of the holiday that you deem as important – the truth of the holiday, whether that truth be good or bad. Being abroad, you begin to see things with new eyes. I really think that is much of what traveling and living abroad does for us – not only does it enhance our knowledge and experience of the world in general, but it also transforms our own perspective and the lenses through which we see everything. What was once foreign we may now find more common place, and what was common to us may now be renewed and unique and refreshing. We see the world with a new kind of vision, perhaps a more accurate one. We appreciate things differently. We learn what really matters to us. We become immensely aware of our flaws and problems (which, amazingly, stay with us even when we cross the Atlantic Ocean. Go as far as you wish; you will never escape yourself.) We learn what we value – what we fear – what we love.

And this, this experience and growth and learning, is the joy of life abroad. And this is something I am unbelievably thankful for. And there is a tiny word bursting with immense might: gratitude. Gratitude is what I feel. Gratitude is what I want to give. Gratitude and love – always.