Count Your Many Blessings Day!

I do not have official authority to do what I'm doing today, but I'm going to do it anyway! I hereby officially, and authoritatively declare this day, MONDAY, MARCH 26, 2012 Count Your Many Blessings Day!

An important life lesson for me has ALWAYS been that even in the darkest of life times you can find blessings. Pollyanna has been a good example for me all of my life. People say that Pollyanna is too sugary sweet, too intensely saccharine for belief.

I beg to differ. If you recall Pollyanna lost both of her parents. She has been taken in by a bitter, aunt who is not aging gracefully. How does she cope with all of this? Playing the "grateful," game is her way of coping.

She really, truly, does not have much to be grateful for if you look at the surface of her life. She doesn't stay at that surface level. She's grateful for little things, and large things. She goes about making others lives better for having known her. The widow who is bed ridden by disease and has decided to focus on death, rather than life. The hermit who is wealthy but lives alone embittered by the loss of his wife. So many with so many deep problems are affected by this LITTLE girl with a BIG desire to find joy.

The story of Pollyanna is a fictional tale. Yet I have had the privilege of knowing many "Pollyanna's" who when faced with the most difficult challenges that life provides found ways to be grateful.

One example was a beloved friend whose son was killed while in the process of robbing a bank. There simply is no harder challenge than facing the loss of a child due to her or his own poor choices. I watched her sorrow, and suffer. Yet she did not lie down and give up. She mustered all of her substantial strength and kept moving....she provided a grand example to me of continuing to focus on her blessings when the obvious view in her life was a great tragedy.

I have faced many challenges in my life. I would NOT choose to be embroiled in difficulty or uncertainty. Indeed I would much prefer to live a luxurious life shielded from any problems.

One of my beloved cousins posted a great thought today. "It isn't about whether you see the glass half full or half empty, it's about being grateful that you have a glass and there is something in it!" HOORAY for that idea.

When I first awakened this morning I opened a book that I have and just let it fall to where it would. There was a very short article about being grateful for all of our senses: smell, sight, sound, touch, and taste.

I remembered that little thought as I enjoyed the creamy smoothness of my peanut butter sandwich, and the delicate soft feel of the white bread that the peanut butter was spread upon in my hand.

As I walked outside with our little doggy I rejoiced in the majesty of the mountains where I live. I even relished the cold tang of wintry blast that was in the air. (If you know me you understand that I don't really like winter so that was a stretch...lol)

The blessing that I wish to count and announce here on my blog is the gift of family, and friends. I have NEVER been completely alone in my life. There have always been many, many people to love and be loved by. I am ever so grateful for this precious gift.

So....to all my friends, family, and those friends that I have not yet discovered, THANK YOU, I count you as my richest blessings!