Inspirations - Give thanks

by Life Positive

“What happened?” asked Mom, as she placed a plate of tiny masala idlis and a glass of milk before her. Ayesha took a hungry bite. “It was her birthday today, and I spent all of yesterday evening drawing a card for her. And when I gave it to her, she did not even say thank you. She didn’t seem to care!”

“Oh, you must feel terrible,” said mummy sympathetically, stroking her hair gently. Ayesha felt much better. It was amazing how her mother had a way of making all the pain go away like magic.

“But, you know,” added Mummy, “This is something we can all learn from. There are many times we don’t thank others either, do we? For instance,” she said, looking drolly at her daughter, “When is the last time you have thanked Pappa and me for anything?”

Ayesha was stricken. She honestly could not remember. Just last week Pappa had brought her a beautiful set of paints and she had not even thanked him. And Mom was such a treasure, but she had never thought of telling her so. Was it possible that they too would have felt as bad as she had about Sheetal?

Mummy caught the expression on her face and bent down and kissed her cheek, “We are all defaulters,” she said. “How many of us thank God for all the beautiful gifts given us, like hands, legs, eyes, ears, a brain, a healthy body and so on?”

Ayesha was astonished. She had never even thought about thanking God for these things. But she remembered seeing a blind man tapping his way down the street with his cane and how lucky she had felt to have eyes.

She got up and gave her mother a hug. “Thank you, Mom, for making me see this and for all the things I have not thanked you for. And thank you, God, for giving me Mom. And finally, thank you, God, for the fact that Sheetal did not thank me because I would never have learnt to say thank you otherwise.”

Mom laughed, “That’s a whole lot of thanks at one time, sweetie,” she said. “You can never have too much of it, Mom, you know,” said Ayesha wisely, before taking her plate to the kitchen.