HAVE A THANKFUL HEART

HAVE A THANKFUL HEART
 I was greatly shaken by the recent devastation of Japan and then came the news of my mother's sickness. I rushed to her to London and was further shocked to see her in a very bad shape,to say the least. Her medical reports said that she now had to fight  a long battle with her sickness. Though the spring season was all around me,this news chilled me to the very bones like a frosty winter.
 I couldn't hold back my tears. they were more of frustration and anger than of sorrow. I couldn't understand why god is troubling such a gentle,harmless and noble soul with such tough ailment. My mother is such a loving person! She loves everybody and every thing,including the plants and trees of her backyard garden.I have seen her many times caressing tiny saplings and talking to them sweetly asif they were babies!She believes that her garden understands her love and reciprocates equally by giving her so many beautiful flowers. She won't hurt anybody even in her dreams and therefore she has chosen to be a vegeterian.And though she did not impose her liking on us,we too have become vegeterian in order not to hurt her feelings.
 Seeing my tears she took me in her arms and said in a feeble but loving voice,"Posh,don't cry,baby. are you again angry with god? I still remember what you had written in your mail after that devastation of Japan. Oh, your each and every word was like a hoarse shout at god!"
  "Yes," I said,"I am now much more angry with Him. Oh, mom,you are so gentle,pius and attached to Him and even then-"
 Cutting me short, she said,"Have you forgotten my reply to your mail?Have a thankful heart. have you forgotten your cicero?"
 That made me laugh. I remembered how she loved those ancient thinkers and had instilled their words in me. According to her ,the famous Roman orator Cicero was one of the greatest motivational speakers.I then remembered Cicero's words,"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the virtues."
 When my mother had first told me this sentence I was a little puzzled by it and had asked skeptically,"What is a thankful heart, in a world where hearts are  so easily broken(it had then actually happened in my case and I was still feeling that cruel stab in my heart), where calamity and disappointment meets us at every turn and corner?How can one have a thankful heart in this world which is nothing but grief and woe? One must be slightly insane to have a constant attitude of thankfulness."
 She said,"well,I believe in the law of attraction.Whatever you will give will be sent back to you. For most of us, the habitual response to adversity is purely negative. But to those who know this universal secret well, there is always the possibility of a hidden advantage. Things that seem bad are not always the worst possible things. Sometimes they are just a way of the universe of opening new vistas of happiness for us.
 " My child, as I often say,count your blessings. Be thankful for all the wonderful things you have in your life and always see the hidden advantage in the events that surround you.See, my illness will make us more tough! have you forgotten what your dear Shakespeare has said?"
 Wiping my tears, I said with a smile,"Sweet are the uses of adversity."
On that my mother hugged me tightly and said,"That's my Portia!"
 I knew why instead of usual' Posh' she said 'portia'-the name she has given to me after that heroine of 'Merchant Of Venice'. I snuggled close to her.......
-PORTIA