Daily Gratitude: It’s so hard to remember this when things aren’t going well. And that’s exactly when we need to remember it. It helps to remember a time in the past when it seemed like there was no hope. You were so down you didn’t think you could ever climb out of that hole. Then try to recall a year from that time and see what your life was like then and how much that “thing” mattered then. Did it seem to have as much significance? Did whatever pain it caused still persist? In most cases I would imagine not. Things probably got better but in some cases something else not so good took its place. The point is that the importance of that initial thing changed. We who don’t really like change might do well to remember all those “bad” times when we wanted things to change so we could get out of that “bad” situation. Why do we want change only when we decide it’s worthwhile? Isn’t that pretty presumptuous of us? Sometimes I have to laugh at how powerful we think we are. I know I’ve written about this endlessly but it was an important lesson. When I had the post Shingles nerve pain, I so wanted it to change. It was agony. But 13 months later I saw a purpose to it (i would have been just as happy to learn that purpose sooner, of course). Because of the medicine they put me on for it, I ended up discovering my underlying kidney disease which otherwise could have progressed a lot before diagnosis. That entire 13 months was filled with lessons and pain but that’s what it took to wake me up and it’s as if I awoke a different person. Now that didn’t happen overnight but it did happen. I have rambled and talked about more than one point in this post and I apologize. It’s important for us to recognize that each struggle we endure is like another workout at the gym. Because I’ve been working out steadily I can now do more things around the house in my daily life that were becoming difficult. So the struggle of those workouts have enabled me to have the strength to overcome other difficulties. That’s a simple example but there are many more. Try to be grateful for whatever you’re going through and ask for guidance to discover what it is you’re supposed to be learning.