A Thousand Thanks

There are times in everyone’s lives that just plain, for the lack of a better word, suck.  For whatever reason, life is just not going our way and we’re not happy about it.  Today has been one of those days.  I’m exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed out and just plain don’t feel good.

It would be so easy to give in to the negativity, to whine and complain and in the process bring others down with you and sometimes I do.  But more often my solution for getting past those days is to look up to the beautiful sky and say thank you.  Crazy, huh?  What could there possibly be to be thankful for when life isn’t going how we think it should be?  EVERYTHING!!

Well, at least for me it’s everything.  I give thanks that my family is mostly healthy, and that we’re all leading happy and productive lives and there whenever we need each other.  I give thanks that I have so many wonderful old friends. Friends that have seen me at my worst and love me anyway.  Friends who add so much to my life, tell me the truth even when I don’t want to hear it and tell me I’m wonderful on those days when I don’t feel so wonderful.  I give thanks for the new people in my life; the family I’m just getting to know and the acquaintances that are becoming friends.

I also give thanks for the little things; the rain that cools the night air, a beautiful flower arrangement, a song that makes me want to dance, a joke that makes me laugh, a book that helps me escape to an imagined world, and a “Nina you look like a princess” from my nephews or a “Titi, yo te quiero como si fueras mi Mama” from my nieces.

I give thanks for all of those things and my perception changes. The life that was not going my way is all of a sudden beautiful again.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melodie Beattie