GRATITUDE

Sometime back, I kept a Gratitude Journal. At the end of the day, I would think back over the day and identify at least three things that happened for which I was grateful. Sometimes that was easy. And sometimes it was more of a challenge than others. The exercise helped me to stay focused on the positive.

Many of us have the tendancy to focus on the negative when there is really so much good going on. It is much more beneficial to spend some time at the end of the day focusing on the positive instead of worrying and obsessing over things that have not gone as we'd hoped.

I remember several years ago, there was one particular day in which things kept going wrong. My day was capped off with a double dose of car trouble. My brakes went out AND I got a call that my transmission was also crap.

That evening, I was struggling with my gratitude journal. I had two things, but was really working hard to come up with #3.

My oldest daughter, then 17, pointed out that I had a good job and while I might not be able to pay for everything right away, it would help me make payments on the repairs.

Of course, #3 in the journal wasn't about the job, but about the wonderfully supportive daughters I have.

Here lately, I have been noticing that I have returned to focusing on the negative. It does seem that this move of mine seems to be governed by Murphy's Law. I've been dealing with an insane workload, and there have been issues with both my mother's and my sister's health. My sister was going to spend a few days with me helping me get the new place ready, but her health issues changed that.

I am supposed to be off work for the rest of the week, starting today, but 6:00 AM found me at the office finishing up some things that needed attention before leaving. I purposefully wore jeans so I would get kicked out if I stayed too long. Fortunately, I was home by 9:00 a.m. and working at the final stages of packing. I had issues during the day with utility companies, a misunderstanding with the moving company, and an attorney at work who apparently ignored my reminder e-mails that I was going to be gone.

Then there was the coup de gras. Today, the day before the move and two weeks before vacation to New York, my car crapped out on me during a run to Goodwill.

It's a belt. I keep remembering horror stories told by people in the past about expensive belt repairs. In obsessing about all of this, I am seeing the NYC vacation going bye-bye. Hopefully not.

Tonight is a good time to pull out the gratitude journal and start focusing on the positive. The journal itself is packed away somewhere, but that won't stop me from looking back over the day to find the positive.

And tonight, that is a very easy task. I have been blessed to have three wonderful friends in my life. In alphabetical order, they are Judy, Kathy and Wanda. When I put out the call for help (an e-mail, actually), they were there to do what needed to be done. Ironically, two of them work for the utility I discussed today in an earlier post. It ended up being a round-robin kind of situation. Judy picked me up at the service station and helped me take a carload of boxes to the new place. We then put boxes into closets to give the movers room to move furniture tomorrow.

Then she had to leave and Wanda arrived. We worked on the kitchen. As we finished loading up her car, Kathy pulled in. We got her loaded up and made a run over to the new place. After Wanda's car was unloaded, she had to leave and Kathy and I made a final run at the basement and then went to my ex's to pick up a car for me to use until mine is fixed.

She joined me at a local restaurant where I had a very late dinner. While there, I found out that she still had to work on a PowerPoint presentation for a client that is due tomorrow morning. And here she was helping me out.

And, as long as I'm making entries in the Gratitude Journal, it's only right that I include my ex, as I'm borrowing one of his cars until mine is healthy again.

I WILL get through this, things WILL go well, and tomorrow night I will be sleeping in my new home.

I have no idea which car I'll be driving, though.