The most beautiful gift

Michael Carty

Your life is the most beautiful gift. You are free to do with this gift as you will.

Your life is the most beautiful gift that you could ever have received, and the most beautiful of all things that you are ever likely to possess.

It might seem trite or obvious to state this in such plain terms. But no matter how often or in what words such sentiments are expressed, their truth cannot be reduced.

Your life is the most beautiful gift. You are free to do with this gift as you will. You might celebrate each day that you have the gift of life for all that it holds. Equally, you might overlook, ignore or refute what life has to offer you. You are free to do so. But even in doing so, it does not and can never diminish the true value of this gift.

Each new day has the potential to remind you of the beautiful gift that is your life. Each new day also has the potential for this gift to be removed from you. The latter fact makes this gift all the more precious while you have the privilege to possess it.

I have long been alive and aware to the preciousness of life. But the mental and physical health issues that I have been dealing with over the past two years* have brought this preciousness into acute focus. Touch wood, I hope that I am well along the path to recovery now. It is chilling to look back exactly two years in time and to realise how bad was my state, how close I might have come to losing this gift. I am thankful that I have had the chance to turn everything around, and that I have had the help and support of so many beautiful souls along the way. Thank you.

Each new day that I am here now feels like the most beautiful gift.

As I wrote a few months back, in Stayin’ Alive, my main priorities in life are now clear to me:

  1. Not dying.
  2. Getting my mental and physical health back on track.

Everything and anything else is a happy bonus or by-product.

Gentle reader: I sincerely hope that these words find you in a good place.

Your life is the most beautiful gift. You are free to do with this gift as you will.

May you be nothing but kind today, to others and to yourself.

May today be nothing but kind to you and yours.

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RESOURCES

  • Mental health (NHS) Information and support for your mental health from the NHS.
  • Information and support (Mind) Resources from Mind, the UK mental health charity.
  • NAMI Homefront (NAMI) Online resources from US charity NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).
  • SANE Australia Visit the site of this “national mental health charity making a real difference in the lives of people affected by complex mental health issues”.

FOOTNOTES

* Here are all the posts so far in the ongoing series on my mental health journey over the past two years or so: Into the infinity of thoughts; Renewal; No words?; Mental health first response; Glorify; In our darkest hours; At the heart of things; No feeling is final; Relax harder. Anxiety: Your own worst enemy; All these moments; Mental health: Six things I’ve learnt in 2022; Coping?; The sun will return; Gratitude; Mental health: Night and day; Transitions; Peace?; It’s OK to forget; Stayin’ alive; and First rays.

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