January 9, 2011 was my very first blog post. I like to take a trip down memory lane every January. This blog has become such a blessing to my life. I hear comments a few times a year wondering how I can write every single night. The honest truth is that I can’t imagine NOT writing now.
This blog started as a challenge to myself. I was not in a healthy place mentally. I’m sure there is some psychological term. My family and I had been thru so much. Death, separation, moving, loss of so many things; and all with four children ages 5 and under when this rough time in life had started. But we had landed. We were rebuilding many things in life. It was a time I should have been relieved, things were looking up. I had stayed strong thru all the bad stuff for so long. I knew that things were going better. Mentally I knew we would be ok. Mentally I knew I had a lot to be thankful for. Emotionally was another story. I was short-tempered, anxious, and cranky. I felt like a bomb just waiting for next time I would blow up. I wasn’t happy. And I knew that I was the problem.
So I made this blog. This blog started as a 365 day experiment. I was going to find one thing to be thankful for. Every. Single. Day. And not just that; I was going to have to reflect on my thankful thing in such a way that I could write several paragraphs about it. It is easy to say I am thankful that I have food to eat. It is something else to pause and really let the magnitude of that statement hit you. Why would you be thankful for that? Because it is a blessing. Because some people don’t have enough to eat. Because some people haven’t had enough to eat in a long time. Because some people are dying from starvation. Because some people aren’t physically able to eat, even if the food is sitting right in front of them. Yeah, when you keep it in that light, this jar of honey roasted peanuts is a true blessing that I get to just snack on at leisure. Yes, I am truly blessed!
And that’s how this started. It was just an idea; an experiment to pull me out of myself. To find the joyous-me that had been hidden by the cantankerous-me who had dealt with a handful of huge, life-changing events in a short amount of time and was whooped. To change my focus from the bad in life to the good. There is always good. When you glance at the good, you don’t always let it become a part of you. There is something about giving your time and your thoughts to the good, not just a your passing glance; that is when it can become a part of you, and really change you.
Here I am now, seven years of blogs later! I have no intentions of stopping this “365 day blog” now. This blog has become a part of me. You readers have been such a blessing along the way! I am thankful for you for sure!
Tonight I am thankful for that God-given idea seven years ago to change my perception of life. Life can be tough. God is always tougher! And that is always something to be thankful for!
Bug's Bright Side 