J is for Journey

Welcome to day 10 of the A-Z Blog Tour, and my month-long topic: the letters of gratitude.  J is for Journey.

A much wiser person than I once said that our lives are not about the destination, but the journey. What we learn along the way is the value, not the where we wind up.

“No person is your enemy, no person is your friend, every person is your teacher.” (Florence Scovel Shinn) 


“Sharp, pointy people help polish you into the jewel that you are.” (Kristen Lamb) 


“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” (John Lennon)


So I guess I would have to say I am grateful for every event in my life — ones that are labeled “good” and ones that challenge me. Either way I win. If I endure something I gain in experience. Life becomes its own reward. I’m on a boat, being ferried on a river I cannot control, I learn because I remember to have faith that the journey is the reward.

Teachers are everywhere. I love the saying, “I know what I think I know, but I can set it aside for what I have yet to learn.” When we’re ready, the teacher appears. I’ve also learned that a chest full of pride makes me cautious. Something is out there waiting to teach me a lesson I hadn’t anticipated.

These are truly magical times, then. I hear so much pain around me. People in this country are being challenged financially every day, questioning what is needed and what should fall by the wayside. What is good and true and pure and what needs to be shed like an old skin. All those discoveries are good for us, but not easy to go through. Sometimes I wish there were a softer, kinder, gentler way, but there isn’t. I have to remind myself to be grateful for what I have and not what I don’t. Someone said this weekend to focus on the donut and not the hole.

Although, in my case, I can’t focus on the donut either. But that’s a story for another time.