Counting Blessings?

Well, it finally happened. I was sitting here, minding my own business, when it suddenly hit me. Without warning, I was barraged with a series of mental criticisms.

"Why don't you have a job?"
"Why are you living in your parent's basement?"
"Why did you even go to college if you're not going to use your degree?"
"What are you even doing in Roosevelt? There's nothing here for you!"
"You haven't worked out for months... I guess "out of" is your new shape, huh?"
"Seriously, why don't you just go out and do something productive for society already?"
"Why are you crying? Sissy!"

As I tried to fight back the waves of panic and distress, I reached for a whiteboard and tried making a To Do list, so I could feel like I was actually doing something. It didn't help.

Then I reached for the baggie of Cheerios I've had in my purse in case of emergencies. I ate some, hoping for a magical transformation. I even made a smileyface out of cheerios on my computer.

Apparently Cheerios are only for hunger emergencies, not personal crises. Who knew?


In desperation, I turned to IM and sent the hubster a message. No response (he's at work... not his fault). So I found my gigantic Bob Marley folder and hit play. It helped for a minute or so, then I fell right back into the abyss.

Whilst I found myself spiraling into a pit of total despair, I made a last-ditch effort to reclaim my self-respect by clicking on a link a friend on facebook had just posted, which went to a blog post she had just written.


Since I haven't asked her permission, I'm not going to post a link to her blog here, but I will tell you the reader's digest version of what she said. She told of how she was in the middle of a pity party, surrounded with many negative thoughts and questions. In an effort to reclaim her day, she went online and found a couple of things.

The first thing she found was this.

Then she ran across this.

It's only a minute long, you should watch it.

Then she took his challenge. And it changed her day.

And to up the ante, she issued the same challenge to those that read her blog!

Now, it only takes one quick look around for me to realize my life is not at all turning out the way I wanted it to. A couple of short years ago, I never would have dreamed I'd be living with parents (or in-laws), out of school, out of work, and away from all of my friends and family. I'm not going to lie, I know this probably won't be my last "why am I here?" breakdown, but I'm hoping it will be the longest. 

A reversal of thoughts wasn't easy, but with a little mental discipline I managed to remember why we are here in the first place. We prayed about it, and it was right. That's really as simple as it gets.

I'm planning on really trying hard in my life to count my blessings, not my trials. My friend's challenge of finding a new blessing in her life every day from now until Thanksgiving is one I'm going to take. I won't post them daily here, but I will be looking for them and trying to change my outlook on life as the cold Basin winter sets in. 

I ran across (and used) a quote in a talk yesterday, not realizing that it would fit much better for my life today than it did with my talk.

“The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”
― Marjorie Pay Hinckley

So, dear friends, with a new resolve I intend to try my best to spend the rest of my day counting blessings and laughing as much as possible. Regardless of how YOUR morning was, I suggest you do the same. :)