I Am Grateful For My Friends

Friends, this will be my last post for this blog.  I always have great intentions at the beginning of the year to post every week, then every month and then just often enough to be of interest to someone but as time goes on, I find it harder to be consistent with posting. So, instead of trying to come up with ideas, I will finish the year with one final post. It doesn’t mean I won’t come up with a new idea for a blog in the future, I just think it’s time to say goodbye to this blog.
  Thank you for your interest in reading what I had to share and your support. The blog world is a very interesting place and has many layers to it. I know it can be a rewarding outlet and I enjoy reading other blogs.  So the blog world is definitely a wonderful place to connect in. I am grateful for those who share their lives with us to read and feel that connection. I hope I have some new adventures in the future that I can share with you. It has been my privilege to open up my heart to you.

Thank you!

Gratefulness As A Lifestyle

As we are heading into the month of Thanksgiving, we can either look at the good or the bad for the upcoming holiday. It seems like every holiday has detractors that want to erase everything from our memory and make us feel guilty about everything we do. If we celebrate something, someone else will feel bad so we don't want to celebrate TOO much. If we are thankful for our lives, we have to remember that others don't have as much to be thankful for. But when can we just feel good about being thankful? EVERDAY is my response.

Yes, we have will still have issues and concerns, but there is always something to be thankful for. Sometimes it is just one small thing as we are going through a tough time. Sometimes it is so many things that we are overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving. I am reminded of the scripture that Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11 that says, "I am not saying this because in am in need, for I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in."

So how can we be content in every situtation? By having an attitude of gratefulness. It isn't always easy, but our attitude is the only thing we can change, the only thing we control. We can't always change our circumstances but we have the power to change how we think about those circumstances. No one else can do that for us. It may sound very simplified, but everything we do comes down to a simple choice.

So, as we are in the month of Thanksgiving, and then into the celebration of the birth of Christ, let us choose each day what we want to be thankful for. Share your gratefulness with others and they might just begin feeling more grateful themselves. Who knows, maybe we will start a movement.

I Am Grateful For Compassion

Everyone can agree that the past few months have been very difficult for us as a nation. From fires, to hurricanes to flooding and earthquakes, and finally a mass shooting - our nation has been rocked by so much that it is hard to breathe at times.

But what makes our nation, and each of us great is that we do pull together and help each other when those disasters occur. There were hundreds of trucks and boats that went to Houston to help rescue people stranded in their homes. There was a hugh outpouring of support and supplies for each of the hurricanes that hit the south recently. And in the most recent tragedy in Las Vegas, there were so many stories of people who stopped to help others as they were fleeing, at the risk of their own lives. Hundreds lined up to give blood when the call went out. Compassion won the day. Compassion is something we know how to do, when we look around and see the needs around us.

In one day the Go Fund Me page for Las Vegas victims raised over $4,500,000 dollars. and is now up to almost 9 million dollars. That shows how much we do care for others hurts and sorrows. It is a reminder that we are a nation that has great compassion.

We can come together and build each other up instead of tearing each other down. Sadly, it often takes a tragedy to remind us of how much we have in common and that there is no race, religion or personal agenda when we want to help our fellow man.

I hope we can remember compassion in the days and months ahead. Try having compassion on that woman with screaming kids in the store. Instead of giving them a stern look, give them compassion and a smile to remind them that they are not alone and you have been there too. Try having compassion when someone is walking too slow in front of you and remember that they have probably lived a long life and don't move as fast as they used to. Try having compassion when someone is tailgating you. Get out of their way and just move on without trying to make a point. It never does end well. But compassion always ends well.

I hope we can hold on to this feeling of compassion as we move into the holidays with all it's stress. Just try to remember what we are celebrating when we give thanks in November and praise for a newborn baby coming into our world in December. We may not all agree on many things, but we can CHOOSE compassion everyday.

Gratefulness For Longtime Friendships

We can so easily forget to be grateful for those people in our lives that are always there for us. We begin taking them for granted and forget what a gift they are.  I am blessed to have a friend that I met in second grade who I still am in contact with. We still call each other our 'best' friend, even though we don't see each other often. But when you have a friend of over 50 years, it is a special thing.

I don't really remember how we became friends since it was so long ago. We were opposites in many ways. She was tall and I was always the shortest in my class. But for some reason we found out we were alike in many ways and spend the rest of our school years making up secret clubs, fun stories about people we knew and having many adventures together. Even when I moved away in high school, we saved our babysitting money to call each other on Saturday night when it was cheaper to call (remember those days?). We competed on many things such as who would tan faster, who could read a book faster, who got better grades. I usually won on the tanning and book reading but my friend always won with the grades. She was just more dedicated to that than I was. Last year she sent me all the letters I wrote her over the years with comments about certain events we both forgot. They were fun to read after so many years and see what kind of person I was back in high school.

We still get together when I am in the town I grew up in. She has never moved more than 25 miles from where we grew up. I have moved many times in my life and now live over a 1,000 miles from her.  But when we get together, we are those same girls that kicked our shoes off at recess and had to write on the chalkboard for the rest of recess 'I will not kick my shoes off' 100 times. We know what each other are going to say and laugh before we even finish saying it. We each hold the memories of the girls we used to be and still are in our thoughts. We joke that we will be the old age home together and drive each other crazy. But it is precious to have that friendship and the many others I have made over the years.

Look at your friends and say a quiet thank you for those shared memories and special friendships.

I Am Grateful for Sight

This has been a year of some important changes in our life. My husband has been dealing with almost a year of surgery after surgery to repair his retina after a tear last August. He was the one with perfect vision while I have been wearing glasses most of my life. I always tried to explain what it was like to see without my glasses but he could never relate.  Now he is coming to terms with losing the sight in one eye permanently. With each surgery the hope of recovery of his sight became less positive. Now we know it will never be the same and any surgery now will be to hold off the complete loss of vision.

So now I am the one who drives and has to watch out for his blind side. It is an adjustment that we are still getting used to. He still has very good vision out of one eye but since the lost vision is on the left side, it makes driving tricky. I now realize how precious sight is and appreciate the glasses I wear to correct my vision. Sometimes it takes a loss to recognize the simple but important things we take for granted.

What is it you take for granted that would be difficult if you lost it? I am so amazed at stories of those who use their feet because they have no hands. Those who overcome the most severe injury to be a positive influence in the world. I hope we can be those kind of people as well. Don't wait until something happens to say thank you for what you already have.

A Grateful Heart On A Special Day

  I am grateful today for all the men and women who laid down their life so we can enjoy all the freedoms we do. Here in America, we sometimes forget how fortunate we are. We don't live under tyranny, oppression, dictatorship. We have the freedom to gripe and complain about our leadership without worrying about repercussions. We have the freedom to change our leadership every 4 years if we don't like the direction our country is going. We have a voice.
  I pray that we continue to appreciate how fortunate we are and we never give those freedoms away in exchange for safety. That means putting up with opinions we may not agree with in a reasonable discourse. Don't try to out talk or silence people who think differently than you. We have the opportunity in today's socially over saturated environment to shoot down others opinions. But it is neither healthy or beneficial to silence others to make our point. We are better when we listen more and shout less.
  So, as we reflect on the sacrifices made by the service members who didn't come home after fighting FOR us, let us be grateful and appreciate each other more.
 Happy Memmorial Day!

How Facebook Divides Us And How We Can Respond

On the surface this topic this may not seem either encouraging or showing gratefulness. However, stay with me and I hope to put a positive point on a very touchy subject - yes I am taking about Facebook.

In the beginning, Facebook was a means for college kids to stay connected. Then it expanded to the rest of the universe. At first everyone was thrilled. They could communicate to a larger group of friends without the downsides of e-mail (spam, long drawn out messages). You could also connect with friends that you always wondered "what ever happened to so and so?"  It kept families in touch to be able to see those great pictures of the kids and grandkids. It was all so nice.

Then somewhere along the way some forwards of posts started showing up in a person's feed. They were cute videos of animals, thoughtful sayings to encourage your day. Then the tenor of the forwards began changing. Political statements, forwards of news articles promoting a specific viewpoint began interrupting the feeds.  It came to a frenzy during the election cycle and many people gave up on Facebook.

Suddenly, friends were becoming enemies when they posted something you didn't agree with. A recent post came across as hurtful. I didn't know where it came from. Then I realized that their Facebook feed was not my feed. Whatever they were seeing had prompted a reaction that went out to all of their friends. I'm sure the post was not intended to hurt, just to inform. Their feed was probably cluttered with so many viewpoints that they were tired of just sitting back and saying nothing. So they posted a response to a personal experience.  As expected, some people were supportive, some were dismayed.

There are reasons the wisdom of the past said "never bring up religion or politics" in a discussion. It always brings strong reactions. No two people believe the exact same thing. So is Facebook the forum for sharing statements that divide? I have yet to see anyone be persuaded by another person's post, no matter how thoughtful or clever.  Every discussion I have read eventually leads to bashing and name calling.

So what can we do to bring Facebook back to something we enjoy? I don't know if we can reign it in or we need to start over with a new format. Remember MySpace? It was fun until the burden of having to be so creative brought it down. Facebook took over because it was simple. Can we regain simplicity and remember what Facebook was intended for? Or have we gone too far and need to construct a new platform. Many younger people are ditching Facebook.  I don't know what will happen but in the meantime, I will try to ignore the strong statements that are divisive and not contribute to that part of Facebook.

Remember the telephone call? It was once something we looked forward to receiving. Now we dread it when it rings because it is usually a solicitation for one thing or another.  Or perhaps when we used to look forward to getting mail. It meant a letter from someone we cared about. Now it is offers for better credit card rates or bills. Let's not let Facebook turn into something we dread. Let's make Facebook great again.

There Are Many Way To Be Grateful

Gratitude is not a noun, regardless of what the dictionary says - it is active.  Being grateful isn't a thing that is done once, it is something we continue to do and chose to do each day. We aren't grateful because of things around us but in spite of those things that try to bring us down. None of us get through life without some difficult things happening to us. But in those difficulties, we can either see that we can be grateful for or we can be brought down by our circumstances.

One of the most telling examples of this is through the life of the Apostle Paul. He was one of the most influencial people in the growth of the early Christian movement. His writings and letters are read and taught today, over 2,000 years after they were written. But Paul spend a good portion of his life after his conversion to Christianity in prison. He did not have the ability to go out to the people to speak to them once he was under house arrest. However, he continued to write letters and send them out to encourage the growing church. Yes, he was encouraging them, even while in prison. So, he didn't sit in his dwelling and feel sorry for his situation, he continued to use his time to be grateful that he could write a letter to encourage a young man named Timothy. He challenged the young church to remain strong and not give up.

I have known many people who have dealt with difficult and painful times in their lives. It is not always easy to look at the good when you are in pain and are suffering. I knew a woman who, in the midst of her cancer treatment, continued to encourage those around her. When she went to her treatments, she would share encouragement and love with everyone around her. She was an amazing woman and I was so impressed by her attitude during her treatment. She was not healed from the cancer and passed away. But her legacy, I believe, lives on in the lives she touched around her.

Today I am grateful my back is not hurting. Last week I could barely move after lifting something the wrong way. So I appreciate the freedom of movement without pain. If we have no pain, we have no measure of how wonderful wellness can be. Living in the northwest, we appreciate every sunny day we see because they are so rare in the wintertime. Everyone is out enjoying the day when the sun shines. In California, where I came from, we took the sun for granted because it was expected to shine every day. It is all how we look at things.

So, appreciate what you have today. Encouarge those around you, even if you don't feel like you are in a good place. It will give them a boost and most likely will give you one at the same time.

A Legacy Of A Life

 
I spent yesterday at a memorial service for a dear woman I have known for many years. She was the kind of person who never saw herself as having any influence in the larger world. But as people shared about her life, you could hear how much she was an influence.  She was a mentor to me without really knowing it.  She encouraged me many times with positive words and told me more than once what a good job I was doing in my ministry life.  You really need to hear those words when you work in ministry because there are not a lot of awards, cudos or job advancements.  But when someone praises you, it means a great deal.
  In addition to her words, her life spoke volumes. Her love for her family was the strongest I had ever seen. She supported her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids all along the way.  She was always there for them and loved being surrounded by them.  When her husband passed away unexpectedly 17 years ago, she had a hard time going on without him.  But she did it for her family. She was taken too soon but is where she longed to be, reunited with her husband.
  As I listened to people share about her life, I thought about how important our legacy is. What will people say about us? We won't know, but if we live a life for others - not just ourselves, we are leaving a legacy for those whose lives we touch.  Goodbye Gayle, and thank you.

Want To Be Grateful? Look Around You

First, a couple of things I am grateful for:
  1. Despite dire warnings that cell phones (and now virtual reality goggles) make people less connected and isolated, I am happy to see the local coffee places full of people sitting together and talking to each other. So communication is not dead.
  2. Seeing the generosity of people on sites like our local 'Buy Nothing' and community pages on Facebook help me remember that there are still many people who care about others. Every need I have seen posted has been met in so many ways. People want to be generous when they can meet a need.

  One thing I do want to do at the beginning of this year is to challenge us all to remember to be civil to each other. I have noticed a dangerous trend in our area recently to run through red lights in just about every stop light. For a small community like ours, it is disappointing. I remember when we first moved here and we were amazed how people would move over a lane to let you on to the highway. Coming from California, we weren't used to consideration in driving. I loved that about our town. Now, many people have brought bad habits from driving in the city to our town.  Just try to remember that it could be your loved one that could be impacted if you are driving through a light after it turns red. Is anything that important that you risk your life, and others, to get someplace a few minutes faster.
  I know I am speaking about my community but I know it extends everywhere people drive. We can be more patient, more aware and more cautious. There have been too many accidents lately and it is most likely aggravated by impatience and the need to hurry. Take a deep breath and follow the rules of the road. It benefits us all.
 And finally, focus on positive stories rather than negative. Your outlook changes when you spend more time on positive stuff than the bad stuff. Bad stuff happens every day but we don't have to dwell on it. There are just as many positive stories. Live there.

New Year, New Attitude

  I took a year off writing my blog on gratitude but I noticed that I still had some people viewing my site. So, I have decided to revive my blog and share new ways I am feeling grateful as well as remind us all that there are some good things in this life we live.  It wasn't that I didn't feel grateful last year but it is amazing how hard it is to keep up a consistent flow of thought every week or month when you have expectations you put upon yourself. I had lots of ideas and thoughts but by the time I got a chance to write them down, they sounded disjointed and disconnected from what I meant to say.  This year I will try to at least jot down my thoughts as they come into my head so I don't forget what I want to say.
  So, on this beginning of a new year, I want to say how grateful I am that despite some difficulties in 2016, we have enjoyed our first year of retirement.  It hasn't quite gone as we planned. My husband had three eye surgeries and is still waiting to see the final results of that. My mother-in-law had a life changing accident but is doing very well in her new reality. As we are busy making plans, life is constantly changing.
  This year I am challenging myself to spend less on things and more on life experiences. There is so much stuff that clutters up our mind and life. With so many books on simplifying, I don't want to add to their voices but learn from their wisdom. What I know is that people are more important than stuff so I want to focus on that this year.
  What do you plan to focus on in 2017?