We had walked the footpath down to the river’s edge. There was no one else around and the wind coming down the valley was cutting tiny, churning patterns into the water. The sun was dropping and the temperature had grown colder as we walked.
We sat down on a stone wall at the river’s edge, watching the current and saying little. Overhead a hawk screeched and swooped in large spirals, apparently seeing nothing worth diving for in the waters below. Sophie grasped a handful of pebbles and was absentmindedly plopping them into the water lapping at our feet. The hawk cried again, and at the sound of it, Sophie looked up and followed his lazy glide for a few moments, then turning her gaze across the river to the opposite shore, taking in the pines and manicured lawns, the mountains beyond and the deepening colors of the sky as the sun turned orange at our backs. Without taking her eyes from these things, Sophie broke the silence:
"Be thankful for the moment, it is all you have. Be thankful for where you are, who you are, for each of your triumphs and your failures. They are there, they cannot be changed, so why not be thankful for them? You think that is silly or unrealistic? I think it is the cynic who is unrealistic. Whatever has happened has happened, that is reality.
You can’t do anything about what has passed, but you still have an opportunity to effect what will come next. Have you ever met someone who built a happier, more loving life by holding on to old hurts and regrets, by rehearsing old failures, by cursing God for how they have been hurt? I never have, and I number myself among those who have tried. But thankfulness is a philosopher’s stone which takes all of this heaviness, this leaden dross and turns it into gold. That is a mystery, but it is true. I have seen it over and over again. If you cannot be thankful, then for the moment, at least choose to be still. At least choose to no longer actively speak your anger , your discontent. This is the beginning of rest, and rest will in time lead to thankfulness. But let it be real, and let it be slow in coming if that is necessary.
