Having an Attitude of Gratitude

Hello my good people

Well, here I am after a rather long pause – life is certainly a journey of sorts. It is keeping me in line with my destiny and the work that must be done to achieve my aims and goals, is certainly keeping me busier than ever.

Many of you know I am in the process of building a business, an empire. I want to be in a place where I can leave a wonderfully positive legacy not only for my children, but for anyone who I can impact and empower. If the world gains a taste for Esther Austin, and all that she represents, and if the world can draw just one ounce of goodness and positively from what she is able to give, then I must continue this journey boldly and brashly and continue to work on myself to acquire knowledge, to acquire the spiritual acumen that will help me evolve into the person that God wants me to be.

There have been days recently, not many, but more than I would care to experience often, when I have felt quite overwhelmed with the road before me. I have therefore, been in a place where I have had to put out the call for help, as what I do begins to grow. Therefore, as a result others have been subtlety sucked into the pathway of my vision and are prepared to help me on this awesome road towards personal achievement.

I am realising something very poignant and significant and that is I am living my dream. I may only be half way up that stairwell, but believe me folks when I say I am living my dream. My spirit is leading me up this stairwell to heaven, as it has been said and it is an incredible journey.

Something that is truly inspiring is this. Many years ago, I had a dream. Yes, we can all quote Dr Martin Luther King’s wonderful “I Have a Dream” – but I too had a dream. I then put that dream into action. It became a thought process, then a concept and now it has turned into something tangible. This tangibility of concept and action and momentum will shortly be realised as a fully fledged business and then, as my spirit forecasts an empire.

I watched a programme on Channel 5 on Monday 9th October 2007 – about people suffering from Neuro Muscular Disease. To say I was inspired, is an understatement. One particular teenager on that programme, was determined without to go to University, despite his condition which required him to have around the clock care and a care assistant. Yet his belief in the freedom, as a human being to make decisions and have choices, his belief in his right to have the same chances as everyone else, was unwavering. Through his tenacity, determination and will to succeed and excel he passed I believe his Sociology Exams with all A’s. This was someone who has lost the use of his limbs, who spent his time in a wheelchair and who had to be supported with even the most basic of needs, such as brushing his teeth and to me, this achievement and even his positive and even stubborn state of mind to me , I found this all admirable.

This whole scenario showed me how privileged and lucky I was as a fully bodied individual to have all my faculties in tact, to be able to have the freedom to make choices, to be in a position where I was the master of my own destiny – made me do a reality check.

So on those days, when I am feeling overwhelmed and tired and even a little moody – I must take a step back and look at what I have to be grateful for. I must take up the mantle of gratitude even more and really give thanks for what I have in my life, right now. I know that once I adopt this frame of mind on a regular basis, I will never be in the place where I feel overwhelmed or hard done by, because by keeping things real, and by realising that everything in its own time, I will realise that I am living wonderfully and perfectly in abundance and that whatever more, is to be given to me on my plate, will materialise at the right moment in time.

If I cared More for Me AND Footprints in the Sand

If I cared for one brief moment
About myself, more than I do for others
Do you think I would realise the magnificence
Of the unique being, that God has created me to be?

If I cared for one brief moment
For myself
More than I do for the world at large
Where the tears of my existence
Are wept into pool of frustration’s palm
And my heart bleeds for the homeless, the infirmed,
The lost,
Gathering life’s painful treasures to my bosom
As if of value

When in all trueness, I should be leaving these embers
Of pain at the doorstep of God's house, leaning on my faith to sustain me
In order for change and transformation to occur?

If I cared for one brief moment
For myself
More than I do for you, my love
My children, my family
Do you think I would be able to give more
To those closest and dearest to me
In quality and not quantity of time?
Yes, I would because………as it says in Footprints in the Sand......

Esther Austin© All Rights Reserved 9th October 2007




FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”


Mary Stevenson
Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, All rights reserved