Adversity As Blessings. Let's Count Our Blessings......Shall We?

I was thinking about my life...what is it that I'm really thankful for? This may surprise you, but some of my greatest adversities have been my greatest teachers. I am so thankful for them all. I would not have missed them or any physical life, even though when going through them, I wasn't so sure. Here's a list of some of my most treasured learnings. I'll start with the most recent first. OK?

1. From WALTER's BIRTHDAY...I love that band that my hubby plays in. The guys are my true friends....and, I've known them for many years. I can trust that we can speak our truth without fear about being rejected. So, I learned acceptance...the understanding that everyone's different and allowed their truth. That's allowing or love. That it's not needed for everyone to think the same. Thank you WALTER's BIRTHDAY. I love you all very much.

2. From M.S.....that life is precious and worth it...even, if it's limited physically, or I'm misunderstood or isolated. I have learned to be by myself. To count on myself, to know who I am. That, I'm not the body or the personality or the programing of my brain...and neither are you. I'm a sovereign being and the hero in my world. I responsible for it all....my whole life. Thank you M.S. What a valued lesson.

3.From Close Family and Friends....I'm never going to be what you want and you will never be me either...AND, that's the way it's suppose to be.. Acceptance of our differences is the way to be. I'm now catching myself more and more when I'm being 'my old thinking'. You know, the beliefs we were taught as children...those, we accepted as totally as THE TRUTH. That this color of person was this, that sex of person was that, that age meant so-and-so. I am more open-minded now. It's getting easier and easier to pause and really decide if that idea is really so, or even helpful to my life now, or is just an very old opinion of my parents, family or society that is no longer useful. Please, forgive me if I forget sometimes.... I do examine my actions and beliefs, change and evolve. I take time daily to do just that. Thank you FRIENDS and FAMILY. God Bless you.

4. From my LIFE EXPERIENCES so far....mixed racial marriage, living outside the U.S.A., being homeless, getting a divorce, having a child die, being rejected by immediate family members, loving someone dearly who didn't love me...and that was ok, not being respected and/or not respecting others, learning where I end and you begin, choosing an unpopular spiritual view, have homosexial friends and close family members, being married more than once, living with a so-called incurable disease, having a parent die, having a close family member violently attacted and injured by respected authorities, having to stand up and speak out for what was the noble virtues of life all alone, being ignored when needing help, being old, being different physically, being poor, being wealthy, understasnding the confusion, stigma and

cruelty of mental illness and suicide of a family member. AND, There are even more.......'goodies'. I bless them all, all my life experiences...Thank you Life. Jan

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Photo by unknown. cc. Thank you.
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Cool Quote:

"When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?" ~G.K. Chesterton