28 Nov What were you grateful for?

What were you grateful for?

So this was a long weekend that started off with Thanksgiving and for many, they were thankful only for the long weekend.

But seriously, in these last few horrible years what are you grateful for? I know it’s been hard for everyone, we have all lost people we loved, and many people couldn’t even be there to say goodbye to their loved ones.

Many people lost their jobs, went hungry, lost their homes, got sick, and to top it off the climate in this country was filled with hatred and racism. Yes, it hasn’t been a few of our better years so really, tell me what are we supposed to be grateful for?

I get it, it’s hard to be grateful when life is coming at you hard and fast. When it seems like everything is against you, when every step you take forward something takes you back three steps, I get it. Here’s what I learned in these last nine years of being divorced. Every day I can and will find something to be grateful for. This was not easy for me before, as I hated my life and besides from my girls, I didn’t feel grateful.

I was lucky if I pulled myself out of bed each and every morning. Being grateful? Please, not happening.
No, this was a learned process. One morning I woke up and decided to change, I decided that everyday I would make myself write something I was grateful for in a journal. Some days were hard but I was determined to find something, anything… Maybe it was that I woke up, that I could see, that I could walk. I took basic things like food and a home and I made sure I was at least grateful for those things.

Little by little I added more, the breeze on a hot Florida day, a butterfly to remind me of my mother, a newly bloomed flower in the yard until it became natural to me. Was my life still sucky? Absolutely, it was but how I saw things around me changed and soon so did I. My journey to my new life all started by my starting to be grateful about my life right where it was, in a dysfunctional, miserable, and unhappy mess.

So this weekend was not any different, I still needed to add to my list of what I was grateful for. I got to go to the beach all weekend, and after 4 weeks of working on my house, I needed this break. I was grateful that I still had a home, that even though we weren’t away for the holidays like usual, I had many people sitting at my table.

I was grateful that my friends flew in from all over the county to be with me.
I was grateful we had plenty of food to share with others. I was grateful I had a car and gas to take me to and from the beach. I was grateful to be there, to be able to hear the waves and the birds. To be able to see the clouds and the blue of the ocean. Seeing people laughing and playing together on this beautiful fall day.

I was grateful that I was alive, that I was blessed to be alive and more importantly to be healthy.
See it’s not hard for me to be grateful anymore, every day I find something. This morning I saw the most amazing moon and clouds and gave thanks to God for creating these marvelous things for us. I am grateful for everything in my life now.

They say a habit, good or bad happens in 21 days, if you do something for 21 days it will become a habit. You can start to change your life in 21 days, all you have to do is start being grateful for the little things and soon it will be the bigger ones, then before you know it it will be everything, every single thing. Yes, even the hard times, I still find gratitude in those as well.

So today my friends, remember one of my favorite Bible verses
“There before the grace of God, goes I”

Which means it could always be worse, my aunt used to say if you’re at a table with others and you all put your problems out, you’d be quick to take yours back. Because there is always someone who has it worse than you, that would trade places with you in a heartbeat. So always remember that it could be worse or in my case, it was worse, way worse. But now I can see all the blessings I have and each and every day I give thanks for them all.

Change your mind, change your life and like I say at every blog….
“Be the change you want to see”

@TreadmillTreats