30 Days of Gratitude: Perspective
I have to confess: when I decided to take on this project, I had some doubts about my abilities to come up with 30 different things to be grateful for. So I signed up for a subscription to an email newsletter that would send me a gratitude topic every day. I figured I could benefit from ideas that I had not come up with myself.
This week, I received one that seemed very appropriate: “Struggle.”
Without struggle growth is impossible. The struggles that we face represent a map of how we have persevered and overcome in the face of adversity. Our struggles have propelled us to push harder and find our inner strengths even in our hardest times.
As it turns out, I had already started a post about perspective and I feel like it goes hand in hand with struggles.
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I will be the first to admit that I don’t always have the proper perspective. And several struggles over the past year have challenged me far more than I feel I have ever been challenged in the past.
Often, it is so much easier to be angry. To be sad. To give up and slink home and plop down in front of the TV. To ignore the dogs. To pout. To stomp around. To complain loudly. To eat and drink….maybe too much.
I regret to say, there are times this feels like the only way I know how to respond when things don’t go my way.
But there is such a bigger picture. So many people live with struggles far beyond anything I can even imagine. People living in poverty. People with addictions. People with mental illnesses. People who, from the time they are born, appear not to have even the slightest chance of succeeding. People fleeing their native lands, due to terrorism. People being executed for religious beliefs.
At the end of the day, there are countless people who are faced with having to overcome much more significant struggles than I will ever experience in my lifetime.
Today I am grateful for the perspective that my struggles can bring to me, if I am open to allowing it to happen.