This perfect Miss Pouty Pants pic is from http://www.singleparenttravel.net/
There was a saying around my house growing up that my mom especially liked to repeat “Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty” (a line from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal). It was often recited at the most annoying (for me) moments. Like, for example… when I was complaining.
Over this past weekend, in a moment of mucky, gooey, disgusting frustration, I called my friend Phebe. With great drama, I demanded, “are we supposed to be happy??” [the implication being that it feels like a lot of work sometimes, so is it even natural?] With great patience and care, Phebe replied, in her awesome Phebe way, that she had heard an interview with some 1960’s popstar who had been asked if he was happy. He said he didn’t understand what the questioner meant by “happy” but that he considered himself blessed. Phebe assured me that we are meant to be and feel blessed, are blessed, and indicated that perhaps a better question might be: “are we grateful?” An affirmative to this question is sure to result in joy…and more blessings.
I am grateful!
You hear peppy-happy-positive people say that there are no problems, only opportunities (I’ve been peppy-happy-positive myself, because I’ve actually written that in this blog!); this is true, even if we’re not in the mood to accept it. As I’ve noted in that blog post about opportunities, opportunity comes from the word that literally means “come into the harbor”. I think of a harbor as a safe place, as home. This is all to say that I am wealthy in opportunities to come home…and for this I am grateful.
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