A Grateful Heart part 3

Building a habit means being kind to yourself as you aren't perfect from the start. (Like missing a day here or there during this wellness gratitude challenge...)

Anyway, I have been thinking a lot over the last few days about the balance and give and take of strengths, optimism, and feelings in general that my husband and I have been feeling. Although we have been married for almost a year, I have been able to see this balance and trade-off a fair amount...and I am grateful for it! 

In trying to get a full-time, long term teaching job, there have been a lot of ups and downs for him. I am so grateful for his strength when I am frustrated, angry, confused, and impatient. He is my rock when I am feeling weak. I am also grateful that I can be his rock and remind him that we can get through things, that I am always in his corner, and that Heavenly Father is mindful of us. 

This is a difficult process to go through, and to see a spouse have to go through as well, and I am so grateful for the strength and comfort and support and hope that he has shown me until I am able to find it myself again, and return the strength. 

A Grateful Heart part 2

With yesterday being Memorial Day, it seems more than appropriate to focus on freedoms and opportunities I have because of the sacrifices of so many people.

The Arlington National Cemetery is one of my favorite places to go when I am in that area. I have been a few times, and have enjoyed it immensely every time. There is a special spirit and reverence there, in honoring the many men and women who have sacrificed so much, including their own lives, for the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy, and honestly sometimes take for granted.

I am able to express my opinions, I am able to worship who and how I want, I am able to direct my own path, and I am able to choose where I live. There are so many things that we do each day that are automatic and normal, that to some are a dream or something they have to fight for each day.

There are many people throughout the world who have fought for those freedoms, who we have honored and have noted their names. There are others who are unknown to us, but who are known to our Heavenly Father. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier honors those who are not known to us, but known to Him. This is the place that I am especially drawn to and feel inspired to honor those who have sacrificed for country without the honors of men. I feel a responsibility to them, to be able to make their sacrifice worth it.

May we live our lives in ways to honor the sacrifices of many-those we know and those unknown.

A Grateful Heart

     As a part of a wellness challenge through work, I have accepted the challenge to focus at least 10 minutes a day for the next few weeks on focusing on my blessings. I figured accountability through posting on a blog would be good motivation to set that time aside and do it! I don't know if I will be perfect at it, but I am excited to try. Our guidelines included this nugget of wisdom:

Gratitude is thankful appreciation; it’s focusing on what we have rather than on what we lack. Developing gratitude is one of the best things we can do to improve our overall sense of well-being. It helps us to feel more alive, overcome adversity better, have less stress, be more generous and forgiving, build better relationships, and find greater joy in life.
     
Today, I am grateful for the gratitude I already have, and for the efforts I put into expressing it. It may sound strange, but I feel like my "Happiness is..." posts on Facebook are a way that I express gratitude. Some days it is ridiculously easy to share something that makes me happy, or something for which I am grateful. Other days, especially when I first started posting, it was something random that I sometimes had to take a long time to reach. 

The reason I started posting "Happiness is..." was because I was in a personal dark place, relying on others for validation, and having gone through one of the worst emotional experiences of my life had left me depleted and hurting. I was tired of feeling so down and stuck, so I decided to find something to be happy about (in others words, to find gratitude) in my posts. While I have not posted every day, and there are some exceptions to my postings, it has been wonderful to find gratitude over the last 6 or so years. 

I am grateful for the gratitude in my heart and expressed through my keyboard. I look forward to letting others know of my gratitude for them. 

Direction > Speed

I started this post over a year ago, and while some things have changed, there is still truth to the words, so enjoy!

It seems like when we need it the most, there are tender reminders (which sometimes need to be large wake-up calls, or figurative neon signs, or symbolic 2x4s) of some of the most important nuggets of truth that sustain us and bring hope. It amazes me how often these reminders come just before we really need that support.

Direction > Speed

I often feel like I am behind on my life's journey. I am not married (yet), I don't have kids (yet), I don't feel like I am necessarily doing my 'life's work' (yet), I don't feel like I have accomplished much (yet), and I often question if I am even close to the right path.

Direction > Speed

Through a variety of ways I have been reminded that the direction I am going, the positive things I am doing, the attitude I have, and the feelings in my heart are so much more important than when these 'milestones' happen in my life (if they do happen).

We often think that if our lives don't match the cookie cutter mold of what we think it should be, then we are doing things incorrectly, that we are being punished for something, or that we are off the path with little hope of finding the 'normal' way.

Direction > Speed

I have found that the times when I feel most un-cookie cutter-ish are the times that I am being prepared for something else in my life, or I am fulfilling some unseen plan that is greater than what I could have anticipated, or I am learning lessons that I need at that time in that way.