Chapter 9: Appreciate People
The people in your life can make life more stressful. But they can also make it more wonderful. The people around you are unique. You will never meet the same exact people again. Their time is limited, so appreciate them while you can. The people in your life are a fundamental part of your life and you would be much emptier and lonelier without them around.
Appreciate that you know the people that you do. Their quirks, their eccentricities, and their flaws all make them interesting and unique. Their stories fill your head, giving you ideas. Their presences are interesting and even comforting. Without them, life would be much more boring.
Talk to friends and appreciate their presence. They are there for you. They like you. They could be with anyone else in the world right now, but they choose to spend time with you! Consider that if circumstances were not just right, you two may never have met. It was through a long, bizarre chain of circumstances that you two happened to meet. There is a lot going on behind your friendship. It is very special indeed.
Call up people that you have not spoken to in a while, just so that you can appreciate their voices and their presences in your life. Show them that appreciation. People love to feel appreciated, and you will feel the joy that you give others just by showing your love. All you have to do is take a few minutes to say hi and show that you care. It is not hard and it makes everyone feel good.
Appreciate when people call you up just to say hi, too. Appreciate that there are people who think about you.
Appreciate your family, despite their quirks and flaws. Without them, you would not be alive. No one’s family is ever perfect. Even if your family is particularly bad, they are still family. You probably never would have picked this random group of people as your friends if you had not born into them. Therefore, you are lucky to know them. You may have never met them otherwise.
Appreciate the things that family does for you. The favors, the protection. Your family is the one thing you can fall back on.
Appreciate the fact that you have known each other for a long time. Your closeness over the years has given rise to many memories and many inside jokes. Even if your relationships are strained, blood and time mean a lot.
Appreciate that your family has made you who you are today. Your family has shaped you into who you are over the years. You would not be the same without them. Even if you dislike certain things about yourself, there are probably many good things that your family helped you attain or become.
Appreciate the service people around you that make your life easier. Without them, you would not have the luxuries and comforts that you do. You would have to do everything yourself. Appreciate the smiling grocery store clerk, the butcher, the baker, the florist. Appreciate the bank teller and the manager. Appreciate the mailman.
Behind these people are entire networks of other people working in agriculture, floriculture, mail, trade, etc. These people all play a role in the comforts and luxuries that you now enjoy. A great deal of work goes on behind the scenes. Appreciate the vastness of the production behind each little thing.
Even go so far as to appreciate the people who manage your utilities. Life would be so much harder if there were not so many people working to remove your trash and sewage, keep your home powered with electricity, and pipe natural gas or ship propane for your heaters and stove. The people who work to keep your streets and roads smooth and safe are also good to appreciate. Life would not be so easy without them.
Appreciate the people who work tirelessly to keep you and your loved ones alive and safe. Appreciate doctor and the nurses. Appreciate EMTs and firemen. Appreciate first responders. Even though sirens can be annoying, each siren you hear is potentially saving a life. One day that life could be yours.
Appreciate the heroes out there. They may or may not have intended to become heroes. But because of their actions, they have made the world a slightly better place. They even touch you. Do you recall the last time you received help from a good Samaritan, or saw a story on the news about a hero saving somebody, and you felt the joy well up in your chest? This is how heroes have touched you.
Appreciate the kind strangers who brighten your day with just a smile or a nice gesture. These people are like heroes in small, subtle ways. They can certainly rescue you when you are low and depressed. Kind strangers do not have to be nice to you, but they are. They surprise you with their helpfulness. Usually, they never expect anything back, and they vanish back into the wood work from whence they came.
Appreciate the people throughout history who have worked to make life what it is today. Countless people have worked to create our modern society. As they have improved civil rights and invented helpful technology, they have shaped the world into what it now is. Appreciate their brave efforts. Appreciate the differences that they have made. Who knows what life would be like without their marks on history?