This and That on Monday

I haven't figured out why Monday is such a drag for me. Usually, I have no obligations or appointments because I don't schedule anything on Monday. Retirement means I don't have to deal with a job. Nothing going on.

Maybe it's the sixty-plus years of facing work and school. I just don't know.

However, sometimes we don't have control over life. Today we're up bright and early waiting for the maintenance guys to arrive. They'll be fixing our bathroom floor. The tiles are old and have started to come up. A couple broke. We're not sure exactly what they're going to do...but it will mean using our 'other' bathroom (toilet and sink crammed in a tiny closet) until they're done.

Thank goodness we have another bathroom.

Sometimes we forget to be grateful for the small stuff. My usual practice when I get up is to check the weather, the news and my e-mail. The first thing I saw this morning was a piece about folks fighting a wildfire in Oklahoma. One person has already died.

Last week a lot of folks died or were injured or lost everything they owned due to tornadoes. Others out in California lost their homes. There's nothing left...not even a bathroom.

I confess I'm cranky in the morning when I face dealing with finger pokes and belly pokes before my first cup of coffee. But I never forget to be grateful for those teeny needles and the pen technology so I don't have to deal with syringes and long needles. I'm blessed I have an insurance plan that pays for them.

Though my family is scattered all over the country, I'm blessed that we all get along and keep in touch. Not all people are so blessed. My brother, who is sixty, is going to take my mom--eighty-five--to the mother-son banquet at church this week. I'm so happy he lives close to my parents.

It's easy to be grumpy when our cozy little world is disturbed, but most of us have shelter, food, clothing and security. Most of us have reasonably good health and family or good friends around us.

Monday. A day to be grateful for all I have. Sun is shining. A hot cup of coffee. And the hunk makes a wonderful breakfast. The rest of life? Bring it on...

Best Things

Things I'm grateful for today...

Electricity.

Water.

A safe place to lay my head and sleep.

A working gas station.

Food to eat and a place to cook it.

Friends and family who are safe.

Blessings on your day.

anny

Contentment

...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.~~St. Paul to the Philippians.

There is a widespread misconception that happiness and contentment are only possible if one has everything they want or need. Therefore, we strive and connive and contrive, always reaching for more and more, never content, never happy with what we have.

One woman even wrote to me, angry because I was such a Pollyanna, always happy and never upset with anyone. 'Easy enough for you to be happy when you don't have to deal with bad stuff.' Sigh...

I've been there. I lived below the poverty level for much of my life. I actually lived places that wouldn't necessarily be considered habitable in today's world. I've been the next place to homeless a couple of times.

I've known the loss of family, friends, pets and belongings. I've known grief, ill health, disappointment and yes, pain and anger. Every human being suffers similar disasters and losses. We can't control those events in our lives. But we can control how we face them.

Everyday we make a choice. We choose to be content/happy. Or we choose to be discontent/angry. It's that simple. We choose to look around us at the blessings we have. Or we choose to see only what we don't have.

I suppose you can figure out what my choice is most days. Over time I learned choosing to be happy was easier on my innards. It isn't that difficult. It's mostly a matter of deciding to focus our thoughts on the positive things in our lives.

There have been times in my life when the most positive thing I could dredge up was the simple fact that I woke up in the morning. Hey--it's not a given, you know. When we go to bed at night, we expect to wake up, but there's no guarantee that will happen. Imagine that being the high point of your day.

But it was a positive and as I went through day after day, I clung to that with all my strength. Slowly, I picked out other positive aspects. The sun was shining. A sunflower was blooming. I didn't burn the oatmeal. I found a quarter on the sidewalk. I saw a butterfly.

Contentment doesn't arrive with trumpets and rainbows. It steals into our hearts one blessing at a time as we make room.

anny

Count your blessings...

How bad is your life? We get down and think our life is unbearable and then someone comes along who is dealing with far worse and we get that reality check that we so desperately need. No matter how bad things are, someone is worse off than we are.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

Every year 15 million children die of hunger.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion- what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.

http://www.unicef.org/wes/index_statistics.html

Only 58 per cent of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation facilities.

http://www.galtglobalreview.com/world/literacy_fact.html

There were about 860 million illiterate adults in the world in 2000.

And all of that places our problems in perspective, doesn't it?

Anny

Check out Amarinda and Kelly and OhGetAGrip. Blessings on your day!