What if they were just gone?

Do you stop to think about what you are thankful for? Have you ever stopped to think about what you would do if everything you weren't thankful for was all of a sudden gone? And, I don't mean all the things in life that you dislike magically disappearing, I mean all the things that you enjoy in life but don't take time out to say thank you for them. What if the things in life that get you through your day were just no longer there? What then?
This concept of actually stopping to be thankful for things is not a new one, but maybe this will just put a different perspective to it. There are many things in my life that I would be left without. I honestly don't take time out of my day to be thankful for the sunshine that is streaming through my windows in the morning or the cool autumn breeze that stirs up the colors and smells of fall. The birds outside my window would no longer exist and my mornings would honestly be less beautiful to me. I love hearing the different song birds in the morning; they're like a natural alarm clock. I wouldn't have my car (though if you know me at all, you would know there are days when I would be more than a-okay with that). My health, my friends, my music, my apartment, the people in my life that I could not live without, and the list goes on. It's not that I'm not grateful for things, I truly am. I feel blessed to have all that I do and to be surviving on my own away from friends and family that I miss so much. But, I don't take the time out of each of my day to just be thankful.
We are so blessed to live in a world full of beauty and creativity. Have you ever stopped to just look at a weeping willow, a rose, or a blue bird? Each one took time to make and took a creative mind to imagine and then make. The beauty and imagination behind each of us should be enough to stop us in our tracks and just be thankful that time was taken to give us life.
I think it's so easy to be thankful in the good times and for the good times in our life, but what about the other time? The time where we are hurting. The time where getting out of bed is just too hard to do because we can't stand the thought of going through another horrible day. Let's not kid ourselves, being thankful during the "no good, bad days" isn't exactly number one on our thank you lists. And, if it is, I'm sure many of us would question that person's sanity.
I say all this to simply remind you all, as well as myself, to be thankful for not only the big things that we hope and pray will happen to us, but also the little things that are just present in our day but go unnoticed. Don't wait until those things are no longer there to appreciate them because then it might be too late.