The life of the great composers, in general, was marked by dramas and tragedies. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi did not escape the rule.

Young, he became music teacher of Margherita Barezzi, for whom he fell in love.

Married, they had two children who died in childhood, while Verdi was working on his first opera. And while he composed his second opera, Um giorno di regno, his wife died at the age of twenty-seven.

Devastated by the pain, he promised that he would not return to writing. It did not take long for his penury to knock on the door and to have credit cut wherever he intended to feed himself.

It is said that one night, when the cold punished the city, he saw a woman with two children on the street. She cooked nuts in an improvised fire

He removed his scarf, offered it to the woman, and humbly asked, Could you give me some nuts, in exchange for this?

Pity, the woman returned the scarf with some nuts. As the kids looked at her without understanding anything, she said:

He is feeling a lot hungrier than we are.

Two years later, however, he debuted his Opera Nabuco, which made him famous in Milan.

With good clothes, credit, a good place to live, he returned to the streets to look for the woman who had killed his hunger, in a winter night.

Finding her he asked if she remembered him. He was very well dressed so that she could associate him with almost a beggar who had offered some nuts in days in the past.

He said: But I remember you and I will not forget your gesture.

He wrapped her in a shawl to beat the cold of the hour, and put some coins in her hands.

And he disappeared in the night.

*   *   *

 Happy are the grateful hearts. Those who do not forget the blessings received, the favors offered.

Someone wrote that one of the most powerful forces that there is - and little understood - is the power of gratitude.

Gratitude encompasses the power of the recognition of a power superior to us, which stirs the gears of the Universe.

The act of thanking is greater than any religious dogma.

It also encompasses the power of positive thinking, which allows us to develop optimism and confidence in ourselves and the future.

And, of course, we do not lack reasons to be grateful: the fact of being alive, to be listening or reading this message.

Also the difficulties of the way. They are self-empowerment and allow us to become better and  more human beings.

They are like the stones on the way that give greater security to those who pass through on days of rain and mud.

Perhaps a good practice would be to spend five minutes every day to spread the subtle aroma of gratitude.

We could use brief lines, notes left in strategic places, short messages sent by mobile phone.

Thanking for the affection of parents and friends, for the value of teachers and medical professionals. For those who serve us the food, for whom provides the cleaning of the environment.

Or for people who, at certain point, simply offered us the right word.

Let us think about it.

Spiritist Moment Team, based on
thoughts of Humberto Bez Batti.
May, 30.2019.