More on Gratitude

©2021 by Vernon Miles Kerr, VernonMilesKerr.com

Orignally posted as a rough draft to Twitter on 8/18/2021

FirstCuppaJoe for 8/18/21

A Tweeter asked, “the key to happiness is__ , no restriction on word count.” I answered in one word. #gratitude It even propelled me to write a whole essay about it. https://wp.me/p467nR-1cH
Plagued by occasional #depression, I find that counting my blessings — though hard, when my mind is automatically dwelling on the negative — helps to counter it’s morose effects.
This morning, I was meditating about one of my greatest faults: lacking the focus to stay-the-course when any little life-challenge tries to swing the compass. Because of that fault, my willy-nilly course in life has caused me to walk away from some significant opportunities. Like a Bachelor’s degree when 3/4 completed, a Juris Doctor degree from a fine accredited law school, a normal family life when lured into a religious cult that pitted our family against so much of America’s social heartbeat by enforcing strict “orthodox” practices regarding “holy” days.
I thought, “What is there, in all THAT, to be grateful about—chasing job after job, career after career, while dragging my degree-less tool kit behind?’

Then it came to me: if I’m truly here to observe, and to clearly impart to others some benefit from those observations, WHAT A SURVEY of human activities my multitude of careers and professions gave me!
Career 1, the details of Banking, Finance, Real Estate.
Career 2, Sales to homes, to businesses, to great corporations — everything from a simple office supply item to CGI systems for companies as large as Disney & Warner Bros.
Career 3, Software Engineering, from being a neophyte “build-meister” at 60 to administering SW Configurations of groups of thousands of programmers’ code-check-ins — for gov. & Fortune 100s — in my late 70s. I’ll bet few on Earth have had the opportunity to be the fly-on-the-wall in so many human pursuits, to see the “how it’s made” for such an array of “stuff.”

Talk about turning lemons into lemonade… fate has accorded me that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.