My most important mentor in living a grateful life is my 11 year old son, Patrick, who has Down Syndrome. I began keeping a grateful journal for Lent about 7 years ago while he was in the midst of fighting for his life against leukemia. At the time, I was angry and bitter and not very grateful at all. Patrick, on the other hand, greeted each of his doctors or nurses or any stranger he met in the hospital with the reverence and blessing they each deserved. There was a point when he was receiving a heavy dose of a particularly nasty drug and he couldn't walk and he had to go in for 8 days straight to receive the dose. I literally felt like I was allowing him to be poisoned and I felt tortured each and every time I carried him in to the hospital. On the next to the last day, I was crying silent tears as I was walking through the hospital doors and Patrick was so very weak from the effects I was heartbroken. In this moment an elderly man comes toward us through the doors and Patrick lifts his head off my shoulders and waves to him with a tired smile.It was one of those moments that just crystallizes everything. Patrick had the ability and the spirit to acknowledge the blessing of paths crossing, no matter how weakened he was. He was my guide and my hero through my darkest days.
Today, Patrick is healthy and living a life filled with gratitude. Whenever anyone comes in, he acknowledges them, his level of compassion for others, his example of seeing the beautiful in the ordinary and his ability to be enthusiastic and effervescent daily guide me through just as he did long ago.
I am grateful beyond measure that he has graced my life and know that he has been my dearest and most important teacher in almost all parts of living but especially in living with a grateful heart.
