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Gratitude: The Amazing Antidote For Angst
Nov
Life is an adventure. Sometimes the adventure is joyous and sweet. Sometimes it’s painful and difficult. In my experience, the best response to both is gratitude. As many of you know, I have had an exciting year. In February a nice surgeon spent about nine hours whittling on my brain to remove a benign lump that was trying to make me blind and was squishing a lot of important things with names in my head (More Info Here). The recovery was tough. After surgery I wasn’t much good for anything physical and had double vision for several months. Then, just as I was starting to feel like myself a bit I got Covid-19 (More info Here). While my case was very mild due to some wonderful herbs I was using, it still took a lot out of me…and frankly there wasn’t much there to take. We’ve moved twice this year unexpectedly and have remodeled several buildings. Mostly I sat in my chair and watched my sweet wife and my adult kids and friends work their tails off doing things I’d really have liked to have been able to help with. That was perhaps the hardest thing of all. I’m still not worth much when it comes to strenuous physical activity and if I bend over my brain hops onto a fun merry-go-round for a few minutes. But things are steadily improving little by little.
So, having had such an unusually difficult year how do I feel?
I feel Grateful.
I’m grateful the surgery went well. I’m grateful for the prayers and kind words from so many of you good folks. I’m grateful that I don’t have a Vienna sausage squishing things in my brain anymore. I’m grateful for some wonderful weeds that have aided my recovery (More Info here). I’m grateful for my sweet wife and daughters who have cared for me. I’m grateful for sons and daughters that are great herbalists and great business people that can run a company while I was busy being dizzy. But, perhaps most importantly and unexpectedly, I’m really grateful for the hard times and the limitations I’ve experienced this year.
As you might imagine, I did a lot of thinking before the brain surgery. I wondered how it would all turn out. My wife and kids were very worried but I felt peace…really profound peace. It was almost like the Good Lord put His arm around my shoulder and said “You may die. Or you may recover completely. Or you may end up with a brain or body that is significantly disabled; but don’t worry about it. We’ll get through this together like we always do.”
Life can be really hard at times. We can suffer great loss and pain. Having been through some great loss and some significant pain at times in my life I have come to the conclusion that the best medicine for those sorrows and struggles is gratitude. So, what does that mean? Does it mean we should be grateful that our spouse died or that we’ve become disabled or that our business has failed or whatever other hard thing comes down the pike to trouble us? No, I don’t mean to trivialize in any way the pains that people have to bear in this life. But, without exception in my own life, the most difficult experiences have led to the most precious rewards; rewards of patience, of appreciation for others, of wisdom, of faith. I truly believe that when I’m an old coot looking back at my life and remembering the hardest and most painful times that I’ll say; “I wouldn’t have missed that. That is when I learned to appreciate the things that matter. That is when I learned to really feel and appreciate the love of others. That was when I learned that I can’t do things on my own and that the Lord is there to get me through it. That is when I learned to have compassion and to serve others that are also struggling and to do it in ways I couldn’t have imagined if I hadn’t been through such things myself.”
I once read a book about parenting that said “Whatever you emphasize will enlarge“. I hope that you will take some time this Thanksgiving to emphasize in your own life and heart a focus on the things for which you can be truly grateful. As you do so, I promise that list will expand and grow. Life can be very difficult at times. But I believe we came into this world to learn, to grow and to become. We came to love and be loved, to serve and be served. I’m grateful for all of you, for your desires to learn and for your desires to love and serve others.
God bless you all.
And, God bless each of us to recognize the blessings we receive and the opportunities we are given to learn and grow so that we can, in turn, reach out to bless others.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Doc Jones
Replay Of Doc’s Special Herbal Holiday Livestream – Making Wassail Cider
True, useful, comforting words, Doc. The best I’ve seen in a very long time. Thank you, bless you. So many people are grateful for you!
Amen! Thank You for this & hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Love you Doc, you and your thoughts are precious and true. God bless you.
Thanks for this Doc! I always appreciate your blogs a lot. 🙂
Love, Esther
-You have touched on many ideas and opportunities that I have experienced and have come to the same conclusion – God sent us here to learn and grow and we need to be grateful so that our hearts are opened to the next opportunity.
Doc Jones, what a wonderful article. I am 76 and have seen my share of hard times. The first was when I was 8 years old, we moved, my father died, I learned about religious prejudice the hard way. It took me a long time to get through all that but I learned the lessons and it made me a much better person able to deal with and learn things from tough situations more quickly and much more empathetic than most. I am grateful for my life and also for the hard times. I am also grateful to be able to learn from you!
Thank you for this post. And a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Thank you for sharing your story. Gratitude really is important. I am grateful for the classes I’ve been able to take from you at preparedness fairs. I wish I had a better grasp on the knowledge that you share so freely. May the Lord‘s blessings be upon you and your family during this time of recovery.
Thanks for the reflection, it’s been a rough few weeks losing people I loved.
And thanks for using youtube, that I can easily navigate.
Happy Thanksgiving! You & your family, I’m so grateful for you and your family! You all share so much that’s positive! Always learning😊
So very well said. If the Lord brings you to it he will bring you through it. Prayers for your continued healing.
Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us; I’m very moved by your declaration of gratitude. We need more gratitude in this world today. I hope you and yours have a happy and grateful Thanksgiving.
The last two years have shown us that we need to be grateful every day. The pain and trials we experience make the good times even sweeter. Every experience has a lesson to learn if we’re only willing to be open to it. So glad you came through the surgery and Covid okay. We all still have so much to learn from you. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Wishing you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving!
Very inspiring and comforting. I agree that we need to be grateful for everything we experience. That doesn’t mean that we have to like it, or not do anything about it. We do need to use our experience, both good and bad to grow. After all, if we only had good all the time, we’d get spoiled and not appreciate it. A bit of bad makes the good all so sweet. God bless you and your family. Happy Thanksgiving
Thank you for sharing that. Sometimes it is difficult to express gratitude but there is so very much to be grateful to God for.
May He continue to bless you and your family in all that you do.
Have a happy Thanksgiving.
I too was losing the vision in my left eye. I thought of you and said ” Doc Jones went through the same thing, I can too.” Turns out I had a detached retina. Had surgery and am now recovering. I was grateful I did not have to go through a brain surgery as you did. That was a biggie in gratitude. You take care and hang in there, as will I! Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!
Thank you so much for enriching so many lives 🌼 best wishes for continued recovery
Grateful for your products being available with the knowledge and experience that stands behind them, grateful for your free webinars, grateful for your sense of humor and so grateful you pulled through your difficult trials of 2021. May you soon have your full strength back and then some!
Blessings, Peace, Love and Light to you and yours!
I really, really appreciated this writing. I had no idea of all the hard things you were going through, and I’m grateful for your testimony that God has brought you through and continues to support you. Such a crucial reminder as times get harder and harder. God bless and keep you.
I’m grateful for the wonderful opportunity to know and learn from you! Thank you for this very uplifting message. The last nearly two years have been a time of reflection for all of us. It is easy to worry about where things are going and what we don’t have but that just robs us of the joy of focusing on what we do have. Thank you for the reminder and happy Thanksgiving!
All I can say is I am glad you are still with us friend. Here’s to many more years to come 🙂
Doc, so glad you are recovering. I’ve thankfully had very few times where I was a patient, and had to learn to be a patient patient. It made me grateful for caregivers, of whom my husband was chief during the patient patient season, and I marvled at how we are made.
I developed a profound gratitude for good health and rejoiced as my healing progressed.
As you said, it gave me new insights into the sufferings of others, and I became more aware of those around me who needed help.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I am thankful that you share so much with us.
God bless you!
So true and good. Thank you for the encouragement. Keep running the race and God bless you.
I am so grateful for your wise words and your continued sharing with all of us even when you aren’t feeling well. Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I feel so blessed to have you, your family, and your wonder herbs in my life. I am so grateful you are healing. Thank you for all you do for so many. Happy Day to all.
Doc, thank you so much for this important message. Despite all my blessings, I find myself spending more of my time complaining about what I don’t have rather than being grateful for all the wonderful things I do have.
One of the things that I’m grateful for is your willingness to generously share your incredible herbal knowledge with others. He who started a good work in you will carry it through to completion, and we can all be grateful for that.
Thank you for the reminder, and may God speed your healing!
Indeed! It is a joy to hear your heart sing a God-honoring, life-ennobling psalm. The best parts of my character were formed in the crucibles of loss, uncertainty, betrayal. God is none of those and He has become ever clearer and nearer through those years.
God continue to heal and masterfully shape who you are and what you do to the praise of
His glorious grace.
Doc Jones, you bring such joy and light to everything you do. God’s love shines through you. Thank you for sharing so intimately with us. I totally agree that the hard times produce great blessings—-things we couldn’t imagine—new perspective both inward and outward (eyes to see; ears to hear). May God continue to bless you and your wonderful family.
So glad that God left you on this earth still to help all of these other souls out and learn some down to earth herbal medicine. Thank you for sharing!