A CONSCIOUS GRATITUDE

by Earlie Doriman
To me, gratitude is a feeling and a virtue of being grateful to others whose influence into your life creates a lasting remembrance and profound difference. To say you are grateful means you appreciate genuinely the kindness and goodwill extended to you by someone who might be a family member, a relative, a friend, or perhaps a complete stranger. Therefore, conscious gratitude is an expression from your heart flowing out naturally, expands within, and makes you an inspiring reflection of that same compassion bequeathed unto you by others. You become what their kindness has sown into your own being.
I grew up in a big family. My father was a very humble farmer and my mother a plain homemaker, who looked after seven children. I knew then that as a farmer, my father could not provide us everything that we wanted, but I did not reckon we were deprived of our happiness as young kids because what I could reminisce today were the happy memories of a countryside life. The bursting laughter with my younger brothers and friends as we climbed trees like monkeys, the thrill on riding carabaos (water buffalo which is so called farmer’s beast), the enjoyment of flying kites, the real excitement running on hills and valleys and a whole lot more.