I Finally Understand This Whole Gratitude Thing

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“Be grateful for what you have.”
Such a simple concept. Yet I’ve always understood it at such an abstract level. Until now.

In the past six months, I’ve moved, started a new job and overall have changed my lifestyle quite a bit. Real talk though, I didn’t (fully) feel the positive effects of all this change until about six weeks ago. I truly feel grateful and peaceful every. damn. day. And I have Samantha Allen to thank for that.

Sami was a beautiful soul, 29 years young. She battled a rare type of cancer on and off for the past decade. Luckily, she was consistently healthy for years at a time which allowed her to do incredible, superhero style things on this planet.

For example, every single day, no matter how terrible of a day, Sami’s alarm went off at 8PM, prompting her to say something she was grateful for. Sami suffered so much and in a very rapid period of time — losing the ability to swallow, to speak, and ultimately, to walk. Despite each major function that she lost, she still did this gratitude exercise every. damn. day. She still identified something, the simplest thing, that brought her joy at 8pm each night.

Sami lost her battle two months ago, a major loss to so many people. Even for someone like me who knew her distantly, her story was heart wrenching. How could a young, carefree, beautiful, yoga and sun loving girl get as sick as she did? Even moreso, how the hell did she handle it all so peacefully??

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