The power of gratitude.

 

I didn’t realize how serious the fuel scarcity in Yaoundé was until on my way to the office one day, I noticed I was low on gas.  I stopped by four gas stations and none had the precious liquid. I was already running late for an appointment and the gas in the car couldn’t take me right to my destination. One of the gas stations had it but they didn’t have electricity.  I decided to call my friend who works in the maintenance unit of the electricity corporation, AES-Sonel, to know which parts of town had electricity. He said the Tsinga and Madagascar neighborhoods.  So I headed that way.

Arriving Tsinga, I went to the first gas station. No gas. Second, third. Same story.  As I headed towards the Mokolo neighborhood, I started saying to God, “Thank you for the fuel, thank you for the fuel…”. As I said this, I made sure I felt the feeling of having the fuel already.  The gratitude resounded in my very being. As I drove on, I almost started doubting if there really was a gas station on that street but something kept telling me to keep driving. I knew the more I drove in the wrong direction, the more likely it was for the car to stop completely if the gas got finished completely. I actually saw a couple of people with gallons going to buy gas, probably because their cars stopped on them.

Behold, barely one minute after I started expressing my gratitude to God for the fuel, I saw a Tradex gas station. From the number of bike riders and cars lined up, I could tell they had both fuel and electricity! I smiled and took my turn in the shortest queue, opened my wallet and emptied it to get the fuel. I tipped the guy who served me. This, my friends, is the magical power of gratitude. I do the same for parking spaces. And 90% of the time I either find one or someone pulls out for me to get in, sometimes a couple of minutes after I arrive.

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