Gratitude

[amateurparent]

After a month of horrific rains .. And an additional 10 1/2 inches of rain in the last 3 days, I am grateful today for SUNday. This has been a day of no lightening, no thunder, no rain, no floods., no tornados. Truly a day of rest for our entire region.

My family is safe and dry. My house did not flood.

Years ago, as newlyweds, we rented a house in a flood plain. During heavy rains, we had water up to the threshold of our door. Literally, covering the yard in all 4 directions, over the porch and to the threshold. Then it stopped. We have never looked at housing the same after that experience. Today, I am grateful we didn’t buy a house on a creek or a lake .. That one bad experience with water made us very wary of water and always on the look out for proper slope and drainage. And yet, I look at people who took every precaution and were devastated by flooding that their region had never seen in recorded history before.

So today .. I will not ask why or why not. I will simply be grateful to be safe.

[Anonymous]

Time to build the ark.

I’m glad everyone is safe.

[Anonymous]

amateurparent wrote:

Today, I am grateful we didn’t buy a house on a creek or a lake .. That one bad experience with water made us very wary of water and always on the look out for proper slope and drainage. And yet, I look at people who took every precaution and were devastated by flooding that their region had never seen in recorded history before.

So today .. I will not ask why or why not. I will simply be grateful to be safe.

One of my kids is emotionally paralyzed by the why me?/why not me? question. It’s hard for her to break through to simply be. Thanks for the reminder.

[Anonymous]

Thank you.

It is important in the middle of any difficult situation to slow down, be still and recognize blessings that do exist.

[Anonymous]

Ann:

I am sorry that your child is paralyzed by the Why Me question. I used to be.. And I was there long enough that I don’t think I will very forget how horrible it felt.

The widely held belief that miracles are earned through righteous living — that still annoys me. I especially resent people assuming that my current FC is a result of long buried and hidden doubts .. That my life challenges were somehow God punishing me for unspoken thoughts and hidden doubts of faith.

I have found that gratitude is healthy for me. It is good for me physically, mentally, and spiritually to acknowledge the goodness in my life. The ability to include ourselves in the part of humanity that gets to experience pain and hardship is an important step towards becoming fully human. IMO, when we start to separate ourselves as being somehow too beloved by God to have real earthly challenges, we have lost our humanity. With such an attitude, we might be able to achieve sympathy but not true empathy. We are supposed to mourn with those who mourn .. How can we do that if we are somehow emotionally separating ourselves from their experiences. When we see ourselves immune from those experiences, we lose.

To be able to honestly say, “that could easily have been me” about any hardship allows us to embrace them emotionally in their hour of need

[Author]

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