Guest Post: A Flood of Gratitude

Today I am grateful for a good report from my dermatologist and for almond bark. How is that for random?

I am also very grateful that my sister Zita has written a guest blog post for "Habitual Gratitude." I am the youngest of 8 girls in my family, so all my sisters led the way for me. (My three older brothers helped pave the way too.) Zita is just 3 years older than me so she was someone I was definitely keeping my eye on as I moved through my teen years. Thankfully, she's always been pretty even-keeled. 

She did lead the way in a way I wish she never had to though. She was the first sister diagnosed with breast cancer. She handled it with strength and grace. Little did we know then that my sister Mary Jo and I would also face that diagnosis.

Thanks Zita for your wonderful message below and for taking the leap into the blogosphere. Writing runs in our family and that is a good thing. I will be back next week as I am taking a blog break over the weekend. 

Flood of Gratitude

Here is a picture from a couple of days ago from our place in Iowa.  If you look to the back of the picture you will notice there is flooding happening with water going across our driveway.  

This is a very unusual occurrence for Iowa for the middle of December.  With gratitude, I thought of how lucky we are that we haven’t had to experience major flooding and also of how lucky we are that all the rain we received wasn’t snow.  If that was the case, we would probably be still digging out!

Then my mind went in another direction, while still in the flood theme.  With less than two weeks until Christmas, I have my moments of feeling flooded (so to speak) with things I would like to do before the 25^th.  I think the majority of us have these moments at times.  It’s easy to get swept away with shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, cleaning, etc., all while keeping up with our regular daily business.

This is where practicing gratitude can help us to have our feet planted firmly in the true spirit of the season.  I am thankful that I have my health and the capability to be able to do the things I mentioned above.  I used to wish I could have gotten a lot more accomplished (flash flood).  In more recent years, I try to keep what I want to get accomplished more in the range of some areal flooding.  I want more of my time to be filled spending it with family and friends and am very grateful for any chance to do that. 

So, in these last days before Christmas, make sure you don’t try to cross where water is covering your path.  You never know what is below the surface and when you might get swept away.  Keep your feet planted firmly and remember the true reason for the season. Have a smooth flow of positive thinking. I think I heard the forecast . . . a flood of gratitude.