Winter Fire*Side Reflection

We are in the midst of winter, although it doesn't feel like it here in Texas.  We have been on the verge of spring for most of the month.  I find the winter cycles strange.  As a kid, I could guarantee snow every winter, but these days, one just doesn't know what to expect.  On the upside, it has allowed for more time outside. 

My walks have been meditative lately.  The only consistent sign that winter is here.  I posted a question over on the by the season page and it feels like the right question to be asking myself.  After the holiday hangover and the leap into the new year, it's time to cleanse my thoughts for a little mental clarity. 

If you don't have all the things you want, are you grateful for all the things you don't have that you didn't want?

This answer comes with an astounding yes. I've been writing five lines of gratitude a day since January one, and I can say, with conviction, that the process has helped me accept the thanksgiving in the small things.  Imagine having a bad day and then trying to find five good things about it.  It shifts perspective. 

I am very blessed to have the things I want, and when I don't, I try to find the means to get them.  For example, I wish I had more time with my family in Nebraska, so I'm carving out dates in my calendar to travel home.

All that being said, there is a list of things I'm very thankful for not having, like an unhealthy body.  I'm thankful I don't have a family that has shunned me or I'm thankful that I don't have icy roads, even if I want the snow, but the truth is I'd rather be coming up with the list of all I do have because the alternatives could be so much worse.  We are all blessed in our own way, we just recognize it differently.