C is for Count My Blessings

COUNT MY BLESSINGS. I forget this all the time. With so much abundance all around me, I forget to say thank you. I used to travel with a friend once a week, and we’d talk about our lives, our families, situations that sometimes frustrated each of us. Some days I’d remind him, and other days he’d remind me. But when we found ourselves complaining about something, we’d say to the other one: “Who haven’t you thanked today that you needed to?”

I’ve noticed that when I get upset, if I stop and go to gratitude, soon the upset is gone. My friend, the DEA/FBI agent who did some incredibly dangerous under cover missions over his years at the Bureau, said that of the maybe 400 or so planned operations, there was only one, in all that period of time, that actually went along just as they’d planned. And they laughed about it afterwards, at how yes, it was possible to have a 100% mission.

Most the time their missions would go wrong. Something would be off, something unexpected would occur and threaten the whole mission. How many times have I thought a whole day, or a project was ruined because not everything went as planned? How many times does a plane stay on course during a trip from San Francisco to Paris? The truth is, the plane is being adjusted perhaps a thousand times. There is no such thing as following a perfect path.

Remembering to feel grateful for what I do have keeps me from dwelling on what I don’t. And maybe that’s why not everything is perfect, so we’ll value it, like something rare. Just like in my Heavenly Lover book, Heaven isn’t 100% perfect by design. The Underworld isn’t 100% evil by accident.