In life, it can be hard to understand how to be grateful for the basic things in life that make life easy to navigate. It is important to never take anything for granted and realize that you need to be grateful for the basics of life and how easily they can be taken away.

Last weekend, my mother and I were passing a former housing project in the town I reside in. We shared how there were 146 residential units that had to relocated to other locations in the county. Housing is a nationwide problem and even for me to find the basics of the community that I was born, raised, and loved was a one in a million opportunities because of someone who got to know me and took a chance to place me.

 My home is one of the biggest things that I am grateful for each day. Because four years ago, I had to vacate my first apartment and pick myself up again, with extraordinarily little support to secure housing again and through pure luck I was able to do so. Sometimes in the middle of the hands that we are dealt in life, we come across those that see the potential in us and look to help us with the things that we need to be successful.

There are more things in the world that I am grateful for and even at times when I want to despise the circumstances that involve them, I know I need to practice and not take them for granted because there can be instances where they can be swept away from oneself.

It has not always been an easy road for me to realize that I must practice gratitude. In fact, I complained privately about the things that I needed to be extremely grateful for, because my mind thought that I was at a disadvantage for having things being the way they were. I took my frustrations out on those that supported and loved me, thinking that they would sympathize with me. Instead, they often made me realize that I was extremely fortunate to have the things that I have had and continue to have with the need to be grateful for them each day.

Eventually, what was in the prior instance of my first home not having a successful experience is something that I have made peace with and closed that chapter, and for that I had seen that eventually things were better in my current home and that things are working much better because of what has been given to me. Things eventually work out for the better if you give them a chance to work out and advocate for any changes that need to be made to make yourself feel comfortable. It is seeing the gratitude of the things that were not only a given for me, but also understanding that I need be grateful for the simplest of things too.

There can be many reasons to be frustrated with the life you are handed, but there are also many reasons to see that there is gratitude in the life you are handed too. Seeing beyond all the issues and challenges of your life will allow you to see the wonderful things in your life.