This morning I wrote a song called I’m Grateful that my Eyes are Clear.
The Buddhist sentiment of acceptance and gratitude runs deep through the verses of this song, however there is an element of sadness to it.
"The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness by what it chooses to compare the experience with. If it chooses to compare it to something worse then it will create happiness, gratitude and pride but if it chooses to compare it to something better then it will create unhappiness, bitterness and envy."
Gautama Buddha
I hope though, that in the main the song is uplifting.
While recognizing the negatives of humankind's duality, I hope that it shows the equal positive nature of our continuing evolution. The quote from Buddha above exemplifies how I see gratitude: the sad (or negative) things in life teach us needed lessons, while the posative things bring our attention to the joy that is at the heart of life.
This is how I view acceptance and gratitude 🙂🌿
YouTube version ⬆️ if needed. The 3Speak version says Error Code: 232011 when I try viewing it.
Below are the lyrics and chords if anyone wants to play the song themselves.
C F
I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made
C F
I’m grateful for the friends I’ve lost
Am F
because if they’d have lived on
C F
they’d have paid a greater cost.
C F
I’m grateful for the gulls that cry
C F
at dusk and when the day is young
Dm F
I’m grateful that the cancer shrunk
C F
inside my mother’s tumescent lung
C F
I’m grateful that my eyes are clear
C F
to see beyond the war and fear
C
But still I cry
F
But still I cry
Am
But still I cry
F
I’m grateful, why?
C F
I’m grateful for the mistakes I’ve made
C F
I’m grateful for the sun and shade
Am F
I’m grateful for the sacred earth
C F
Where seeds I planted found their birth.
C F
I’m grateful for the will to strive
C F
when illness drives me to my knees
Dm F
I’m grateful for the seven seas
C F
that lull my sleep in prescient dreams.
C
But still I cry
F
But still I cry
Dm
But still I cry
F
I’m grateful, why?
C F
I’m grateful for life’s tapestry,
C F
I’m grateful it’s not all a fallacy
Am F
I’m grateful for this human family
C F
That can imagine such fantasies
C F
And when I die I’ll happily
C F
be grateful for our capacity,
Dm F
to love and hate equally
C F
and humour born in tragedy…
C
And so I smile
F
And so I smile
C
And so I smile
F
And so I smile
Am
I’m grateful, why?
F
It’s because I smile
C
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