Daily Gratitude: This is a follow-on to yesterday’s post. What goes through your mind when you travel over a bumpy road? Something like “why can’t they keep the potholes filled up?” Or “when are they going to fix this?” Do we think about what it took to build that road in the first place or what it takes to do the repairs? Remember the last time you were slowed down by construction? How happy were you then? Never satisfied is where we are now. We had a tiny taste of what people define as “sacrifice” during the pandemic when all our favorite things weren’t always available. Same with the last power outage. We’re often so impatient and unappreciative of all that has gone before to get us to where we are now. Just think about not having indoor plumbing in the middle of winter or no phones at all. What if you had to somehow travel
Miles to get to the market to get your food supplies? Next time you start to grumble about anything, take a deep breath and be grateful for all that’s making your life easier.

Daily Gratitude: As I was driving to Colorado over the last two days, I was practicing being in the present moment. That was amazing. As I gazed ahead and saw the road laid out for miles in front of me and noticed power/telephone lines up the mountains, thoughts about patience came to me. I thought about the people that laid these roads where there were rocks a dirt and who knows what. They had to clear the path first and then do all the important things required to lay hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles of road. We look at construction zones now and see how “easy” it is (seems) but it wasn’t like that when they had to start from scratch. I kept wondering how they erected all those miles of poles and wires up and down the mountains without any road access – they are just there. The lesson here is that we need to relook our expectations when dealing with goals. Things won’t happen overnight. It’s step by step and sometimes you have to redo things while getting oh so frustrated. But it’s a process and in order to have an excellent product at the end, you have to do it in a stepwise manner pioneering your way just as those laying our roads had to do.

Daily Gratitude: Did you know you can change your memories? The accuracy of memory is questionable anyway. There are so many studies that confirm this. It would be fun if you Googled it and saw how messed up people’s memories are. This could be discouraging but it also can be liberating. You don’t have to be stuck with all the bad memories that are clogging up your bank (your memory bank). Felt that a good friend shunned you in high school? Why continue to be plagued by this. Change it. Make it funny. Make it that you heard your friend say something inaudible but imagined it to be something bad. In your remake, you can have your friend say something really nice to you or about you. Didn’t feel loved as a child? Create some loving memories using things you recall. I had a “hospital” in our house and I loved being in it. So the memories I create involve that room and all the fun and great things I did. I even had ideas that would cure cancer but that’s another story. The memories of the hospital (and my “lab” in the basement) supersede any of those that weren’t so good. I can accept this since I know that my memory may not actually be completely accurate. I choose to hold on to good ones even if I have to create them. Memories change every time you recall them so try putting in good things. I know many of you are cringing at this idea but it has validity especially if you suffer from PTSD or other effects of trauma. You can search for “can you change your memories” and see what you find.