Blessed With Honesty

My sister-in-law, Faye, was visiting the other day and we got into a discussion about who we can count on to tell us the honest truth when we ask for advice.  I'm lucky enough to have quite a few people I can go to for advice but there are only a few who I can count on to give me the untarnished truth even if it hurts.  Faye is one of them.

I am ever so thankful!

Let me Think!

I'm thankful daily for so many things that I sometimes have trouble choosing one.  In the days years ago when I suffered from depression,  I couldn't find one darned thing to be thankful for because I was blinded by my envisioned problems.

It took about 16+ years of antidepressants and counseling to break through my despair but I'm one of the lucky ones.  I haven't needed pills or counseling for many years so I guess that is something very important to be thankful for.

  

A Sunny Day in Winter

A sunny day on a cold winter day is like a little gift.  No matter how you're feeling, to look outside and see a clear blue sky brightened by the sun is something that will make you feel better.  I've found that the more intense the blue, the more thankful I am to be part of the moment, too.

Mail and Trash

My building isn't fancy (built in the 1960's) but it's very well kept and beautifully landscaped in the summer.  We have 2 lovely perks that I'm very thankful for...mail directly to my apartment door and garbage containers moved in winter from the end of the parking lot to just outside the back door of the building.  What this means for me is that I don't have to walk far outside in treacherous/icy weather to dump my garbage or retrieve my mail.  I know these are little things but they make my life easier and, for that, I'm thankful.

Still Mobile

Any time I go out I see people who have trouble walking, whether from age or illness, and I know how lucky I am to still be as mobile as I am at my age.  Being able to move smoothly and quickly without the burden of a walker or wheel chair is a blessing that I'll always be thankful for as long as I can.

Underground Parking

It may not be high on anyone else's list of things to be thankful for but yesterday I finally got an underground parking spot.  It means no more worry about walking across the outside parking lot when it's icy and it means fewer housebound days because of that.  

A Smile

I think it's a good idea to take note of what makes you happy, even the little things.  Too often the elderly, the not so beautiful, or the "different" people become almost invisible to those they come in contact with and it's an absolute joy to have someone gift you with a genuine smile.  It makes me feel as though I'm in the company of a truly good person and leaves me smiling, too.  

Color

Every morning I repost photos of flowers on Facebook and am so very thankful each day for the color and design of flowers on this earth.  For many of us, just immersing ourselves in the beauty of nature brings us great happiness.  

Let's Be Thankful

I just finished reading a few letters written to a website about regrets and they disturbed me terribly.  It would be awfully debilitating to saddle your mind with regrets about things you hadn't done or accomplished in your days on earth so I thought, why not create a blog where people could write letters or comments about things they were thankful for?  Long sentence and probably not grammatically correct but it doesn't really matter.

Of course we're all thankful for good families and friends but that's not what I'm driving at.  It's more the simple things, like the feel of the warm sun on your face or the first bite of pecan pie (my favorite).

I have a philosophy that you can choose to be happy just as you can choose to allow the bad things you encounter to drag you down.  There will always be some form of beauty to be found if only you choose to look for it.

Anyway, this blog may go nowhere at all but I'm hoping it will draw even one person to stop and consider what they have to be thankful for and to take the time to post it here.

I'll start by giving thanks to whoever created computers because they opened up the world to us.  I'm a senior lady who could spend hours researching every little thing my mind can imagine and this keeps my mind relatively sharp if I do say so myself.