Last week we celebrated the Day of Thanksgiving. Traditionally we said words of thankfulness and attitude to our family, friends, colleagues, and all other people in our life.
At Homeland Language Services we asked our team, how do words “thank you” impact their everyday life, and got several good stories, but we chose the best one to share with you.
Charity Wairimu is our Swahili-English Over-the-Phone interpreter from Nairobi, Kenia. Charity, thank you for these words from all of us!
“I am not a good storyteller but when it comes to talking about gratitude I can not be contained.
My life is an epitome of gratitude, born and bred in the deep slums of Kiandutu, Kenya where all the evil ranging from prostitution, robbery, drug abuse, untimely deaths compounded by deep poverty reigned, seeing another dawn called for a “thank you”. Surviving on single meals and contaminated water yet retaining good health is no mundane. Although they say prevention is better than cure, we embraced the contrary, cure is better than prevention, for if we adopted the former how could we survive! Ironic right?
But this was my life, I am grateful that though like water and oil we were worlds apart with doctors due to financial constraints the same was true with regard to health for we were in good shape despite the odds. I am grateful that although I had many hiccups in life, I stood out to complete my education up to the university level. I am more grateful that in a country grappling with a looming unemployment crisis I have managed to secure an opportunity with an international company thanks to Homeland Language Services Company that believes in the potential of an individual as a metric of admission.
Today, I can set food on the table for my children and give them I life I never had in my childhood thanks to a company that believes in my capacity to bridge a gap between people. How can I fail to be grateful for all these!
Thanksgiving is a great way to remember the successes for the year, but living a life with gratitude every day has significant benefits. One of the impacts of “thank you” is that it has helped me develop positive emotions amid difficult times. Gratitude has enabled me to focus on my accomplishments and appreciate the journey of achieving them rather than complaints. Similarly, having gratitude relishes good experiences when remembering moments of appreciation and accomplishments and values such memories.
Being grateful also improves a person’s health; both mental and psychical. Grateful individuals are likely to experience fewer aches and pains as they exercise often and eat healthily. Besides, gratitude reduces toxicity improving mental and psychological health. Thus, individuals who are grateful are happier and less likely to suffer from depression. Notably, being grateful promotes good relationships as people learn to appreciate each other.
Gratitude cannot be defined in words but, the emotions that lay deep in our hearts and memories that are contained in our consciousness. I will allude to a famous quote that maintains:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life as it turns what we have into enough and more.”
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you it will be enough, for gratitude turns chaos to order, denial into acceptance, confusion to clarity, a meal into a feast, and more importantly a house into a home. I believe every person has that one thing to be grateful for, I believe the very simple act of breathing that we often ignore is more a solid reason to be grateful. That, what you take for granted is what another is desperately yearning for. Come on! it’s high time you learn to say thank you! It doesn’t cost, right?”
