Could you tell me a time you felt grateful?

It has been twenty six years since my mother passed away. It was one of the hardest things I had to go through. I was eight years old and could not believe what happened. I cried myself to sleep every night and even contemplated suicide. Looking back I cannot believe that a little girl felt that desperate, but I was suffering deeply and it was extremely hard to tell anybody about how I felt. I did not tell anybody at school and I just pretended like everything was fine.

One day my teacher took me out of the class and asked me if I wanted to tell her something. Obviously my father had told my teacher that my mother passed away, but my lips were sealed. The moment she asked if I could talk about my mother, I burst out in tears, I was crying so hard and I just couldn't let the emotion in, it had to come out some way, and there it was at that moment. I was mad at my teacher for a second for making me feel this way, which of course, had nothing to do with her. But she just touched the pain, which then poured all over her and myself. It needed to be released.

In the following days I bonded enormously with my teacher, she did my hair in the morning, we talked to each other everyday after school and she spent time with me painting and talking and just being. These kind acts have been like notes in my soul, they will never go away and they will always stay there. These little gestures of kindness gave me strength and support which later I understood helped me cope and later heal the pain I felt so deeply.

Small acts of tenderness I have never forgotten and every year when going through my list of people to be grateful for, that have made an impact in my life, she is one of those beautiful souls that cared. How sweet can a person be, without any reason at all. It is such a kindness that inspires, and gives you a deep sense of gratitude for the beauty of a human being itself. This feeling of Gratitude inspires hope in humanity and life itself.