Like An Improvisational Tragic-Comic Workshop

You can be grateful for what you have, what you don't have, or both. The world is both a wonderful and a dreadful place, so take your pick. Some people love their lives, some people absolutely fear getting out of bed every single morning. There are those who wish they had more hours in the day, there are those who cannot wait until the day is over. The cruelty and the misery, the compassion and the happiness. You can or you can't. Some say it's a choice, others argue it's predetermined. Did you make it happen or did you happen into it? Was it due to concerted effort or was it a chance accident? Is it what you are born with or what you do with it that makes the difference? 

A random list of some of the happiest, most grateful people I have ever met:

A woman whose mother came to this country in trunk of a car. A couple that won 7 million dollars in the lottery. A man who has no left arm. A man with limited vision. A woman with the voice of an angel. A teenager who has been battling cancer since she was 11. A woman who was widowed with two children when she was 27. A boy who spent the first 7 months of his life in the hospital. A boy whose father jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge 6 weeks after he was born. A man who took over a family business and doubled it's profits. Two sisters who fly to Las Vegas every Thursday and return every Sunday with thousands of dollars in small bills to deposit in their bank accounts. A woman who is currently living in a shelter. A man with a part time job that barely covers rent and cheap vodka. A 26 year-old with lupus. A 78 year-old that still hits the gym 6 days a week. A woman with three healthy children and a loving husband. A Vietnam Veteran who still refuses to ever discuss the year 1966. A disbarred lawyer who sells real estate. A roofer who has helped build 73 homes with Habitat for Humanity over the past 14 years. A woman who sends care packages to deployed soldiers in Afghanistan. A woman who has attempted suicide repeatedly. A woman who loves music and sings in a church choir even though she is an atheist. A man who has not seen his three grown children in 17 years. A man with no known living relatives. A recovering meth addict who has 6 cats. A couple that lost their home to foreclosure 4 years ago. 

All of those people are generally in high spirits whenever I see them. Some for obvious reasons, some not so much.