Gratitude (another Story)

In an internet Forum we discussed that the gratitude has the power to heal the soul. And people can do daily practice to initiate the feeling of gratitude. One example is to write down every day all the reasons why we should be grateful.

Then I asked in the forum: “Why should we need reasons at all? Is the fact that we live not reason enough to be grateful?”

Live brings so many unexpected reasons. Here is one. I went today to my dentist and was in hurry. I found a parking lot some where. The parking lot requires parking disk. However, somehow I could not find my parking disk in the car. So I decided to take the risk of paying fine.

But after I got out the car, I realized that I had parked in a completely wrong street. Am getting old :-) So I jumped in to the car and drove to the right address and found a parking lot right in front of dentist house. What a luck! But also there a parking disk was required.

I rang at the door. A nurse came out. I asked her if there is any parking disk available to be borrowed. She went to her car and said, here is an extra parking disk. Please take it away, I have a plenty of those at home.

Is this not a reason of gratitude?

Gratitude

Sunday afternoon my newly bought used BMW broke down. It was only two and half years old and it should not happen. But shit happens. What would you do in this situation?

I stopped the car and immediately called ADAC. Thanks to my wife who applied for me the ADAC membership before I arrive in Germany from Shanghai. The ADAC angel came within 20 minutes and checked my car for failure. Then he suggested that the car should be picked up and sent to car shop.

I waited another 20 minutes. The truck came and the driver very professionally loaded my car into the truck. And we drove to the shop. Since it was Sunday the shop was closed, so we parked my car and I took a taxi home.

Monday morning I rode the bike to the shop and explained the mechanic the situation. He started the engine and said that he needed some time to check up. Two days later, he called that the car was finished. I was happy and went there to pick up my car with the consciousness that I might be surprised with the invoice.

And I was really surprised when he said that BMW took over all the cost on goodwill. I am not sure how many people are involved in the whole process. But at least I would like to say thanks to the following people:

- My wife who applied the ADAC membership for me
- The ADAC person at the service centre who took my call
- The ADAC angel who checked my car
- The ADAC driver who picked up my car
- The receptionist at the repair chop
- The capable mechanic who repaired my car and negotiated the cost with BMW
- The BMW service personal who received the call from the mechanic
- The manager who decided to take over the cost to make a customer (me) happy
- Some one from the BMW finance department who will book the cost to the right account
- Maybe many more…

Is this not a reason for gratitude? Think about how many more people in the world are involved to make our whole life comfortable? Uncountable! Is this not a good reason for gratitude?