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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

On Gratitude...

Gratitude quote printable 8x10. "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?" - Anonymous 
I have been thinking on gratitude a lot today. I have a child who, despite all he has been blessed with just doesn't GET gratitude.  Doesn't get it.   And I don't know what to do to help him see and understand all that he has.  It is frustrating.  

I have always been a "glass half full" kind of girl.  I don't know how else to do it.  And I am so grateful for that gift alone because I see how others struggle to find the good in the crappiest of situations.  I most strikingly noticed this trait about myself 7 years ago.  My husband and I were in Mexico on vacation when I suddenly miscarried at almost 13 weeks.  It was totally unexpected and devastating.  We had a 2 1/2 year old and 4 year old at home and they both were excited to have a new sibling.  While I was waiting to go into surgery, I was alone with just a pad and paper (my phone had died).  I decided to make a list of the things I was grateful for in spite of just suffering a loss.  It was a silly list...but it was a lifeline for me.  And that simple act of writing down what I was grateful for in a moment of quiet sadness and desperation set the course of how I was to deal with a loss.  It showed me something about myself.  It showed me that even at the worst moment, I am STILL a glass half full kind of girl.

But how do you teach that to someone else?  Is it something they either have or they don't?  Is it a personality trait?  Can you learn it?  If you CAN learn it, does that lesson only come by heartache and hardship?  I truly do not know.

I can see how hard life can be for someone who is not grateful. I don't want that life of "lack" for my children.  This is one of those days where being a human being...just being a parent seems very very hard.



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