Thought for the Day 6/14/2024

 Friday Tale - H.M.W.I.P. 

"How do you do it?” I asked him. “How do you always seem to have a smile on your face?”

My jovial friend, who seems to have mastered the sense of calm, contentment, and joy all of us are desperately after, looked up with twinkling eyes.

“HMWIP.” 

“Whip who? What?” 

“HMWIP,” he said again, before spelling it out. “H-M-W-I-P.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“Well, throughout the course of my day, I stop to ask myself, ‘HMWIP,’ which stands for ‘How Much Would I Pay?’. If I just finished eating lunch, I think about how much I would be willing to pay for the opportunity to eat food with my mouth if that capacity should ever be taken from me and my eating experience confined to a feeding tube. 

If I am washing my hands after using the restroom, I think, ‘HMWIP!’ – if I had some kind of infection that prevented my body from functioning properly, how much would I pay to be able to use the restroom as I just did? 

If I look up at the clouds in the sky above, I think about how much I would be ready to pay for the great gift of sight, should that capacity be taken away from me. 

This little exercise helps me to realize that the things we take for granted in our frantic pursuit of wealth, joy, and contentment, are themselves the very treasures we seek. And as I reflect on how incredibly wealthy I am, how many unimaginable and priceless privileges my life is saturated with, I can’t help it but smile.” 

Wishing all of my friends the most wonderful, gratitude-filled day!
~ Yaakov Klein 

O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him!
~ Psalm 34:8