Living a Thankful Life

I love the topic of gratitude,  making Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays. Yep still LOVE Thanksgiving. Food is only part of the holiday, granted I had a few bites this year, and without regrets still paying for it. I enjoy  the opportunity to see and hear (or read) what others  are thankful for.

         A few times I have  been asked...How do you stay so happy, how can you be grateful ? I don't wake up every morning saying. How am I ever going to survive this day living without food and a battery of chronic diseases. I wake up (almost) every morning thankful for sleep and the chance for a new day. There are far to many cliches to be used in this post...and I apologize, but I truly do use them, and do my best to live them.. so maybe they are not cliche after all. Life IS what you make of it...I have a choice to make each morning, am I going to be happy today or not? Honestly some days it can be more difficult to be happy than others....that's when I pull out my secret weapon of gratitude :)There is no cure for my illnesses, and like a cold there is no medication to take it all away just help with some symptoms, so I count my blessings and what a discovery I find. Like hidden treasures on a sometimes deserted island, they change my perspective. Loaded with these gems it is difficult to find myself ungrateful for the many things I do have. The list of things I don't have, like food, can not compete with the ever growing list of the amazing prosperity I enjoy. Now please don't get me wrong, I have bad days, days that are not easy. The kind of days I want to sleep the day away. My goal on those particular days is to do my best to just get through them. Survival mode is not a healthy place to dwell to long, so as long as am I am struggling in a forward motion, I get through it with hope for a better tomorrow.
            So I guess the answer to the question of ...How do you stay so happy?

Is it a choice that I make. I don't get to choose weather or not I am sick (bummer, right :) but I DO have the power to choose my attitude, and I like to be happy. You can call it rose colored glasses, but I enjoy being happy, the alternative is just not very tempting to me. How can I NOT be grateful? You should see my list of blessings <3  What can I say, I am loved and that alone can get me through almost anything. I am one lucky girl.

          Although I'd like to give it a try someday.... ;)  I am not a super hero, and I don't possess some secret magic that makes me happy, it's just as simple as making the choice to be happy.You would be surprised at what trials you can not only live through but survive with your head held high, if you have to. Although I would have never chosen this path for my life,  I'm walking it now and finding the roses in the thorns.
           Like I tell my eye rolling, I can't believe your going to say it one more time cRaZy mom alert, son..... "Make a good day" having a good day is easy...making a good day is worth it.