My daily teachings book (gift from my mother) told me to write down 100 things that I'm grateful for....WOW! that's a lot! The meaning behind it all is the more grateful you are, your heart warms and your perception of life changes......so this is my challenge for the day......
I definitely need this since Saturday, I had a relapse of my back going into major spasms and locking up and enduring pain.....those days I'm not so grateful at all.....instead I'm helpless (and I'm used to being the helper and care-taker) Saturday, I took my muscle relaxers and pain medication and induced myself into a coma for four hours, along with some ice...yes, this did help and by Sunday I was stiff with minimal pain and yesterday I was actually able to move..........anyways, I digress.........after a ungrateful day of pain, helplessness, temporary hopelessness, and coma; I'm going to list things that I'm grateful for.....100 of them.
1-10; Relationships; Husband, my children, my brothers and sisters, Mom, Dad, my in-laws,
Mother-in-law, father-in-law, all extended families, my friends and co-workers, and many strangers that become my patients and put their lives in my hands for an 8 hour period.
11-20; Practical things; house, heat, food, access to water, clothing, income, work, security and safety (meaning we aren't fearful of our lives from our neighbors like some people in other
countries), car (which is really a leisure), access to electricity.
21-30; Health; I can walk, my five senses work, my heart is beating, I have my extremities to take care of things and people, I have a memory (except the short term is not up to par!), I am not mourning a loss of a child, I don't need surgery with the extent of what my back is at this point, I woke up this morning, I'm breathing, the kids are healthy, there are no health crisis in my family.
31-40; Spiritual; God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Mary, Faith, Grace, Joy, Hope, Prayer, Communion.
41-50;Simple Pleasures: smiles, laughs, hugs, kisses,
teasing, jokes, cuddles, my
children's joy, my
children's endless expressions, and bubble baths.
51-60;Emotional; forgiveness, expression of feelings, a good cry, I'm free of panic attacks, Selective Serotonin Re-uptake inhibitors!, a husband who listens and supportive, supportive family, supportive friends, not afraid to show my feelings on my sleeve ( I have no choice, that's an innate thing), and sensitivity....(this may be something I'm grateful for and ungrateful for, depends on the situation.)
61-70;Intellectual; nursing knowledge base, ever-growing mommy knowledge, love for language and arts, extensive writing,
journaling and lists, photo-graphic memory, open-mindedness, basic algebra that helps me calculate medications (my patients are probably grateful of this too!), tuition grants that reduced my school loans, love for education.
71-80;
leisure; shopping, blogging,
scrap booking, crocheting, reading, vacations,
wii, i-pod shuffle, cell-phone, and sleeping.
81-90;abilities; able to cook, clean, play with the kids, figure out
shutterfly!, able to launder the clothes, able to use a screw-driver, hammer, and other tools, able to paint and do home-improvements, able to plan, plan, plan, able to organize (only if it could stay that way!), and able to figure our technological appliances in our house.
91-100;work skills; public relations and service recovery at work, patient advocacy, compassion, communicate, team-player (or at least I try if I'm not busy!), patient safety and prudent nursing cares, I can usually put those
IV's in without much difficulty......I think I'm 7 for 10 this past month!, I make a good "
crappacino *!", nursing armor for the mean patients, and nursing instincts for the patients that might be taking a turn for the worse.
(*crappacino: Milk of Magnesia, Prune juice and Coffee...........makes anyone constipated poop!)
So, there it is; 100 things that I'm grateful for......the teaching says to do this daily until it just becomes part of my day to be grateful.....I'll try my hardest and I can go back to this list or make a new list....because I'm thinking of other things that I'm grateful for...........
soon to come are blogs of Christmas;
Home for the Holidays
Christmas on the Farm.
2 days before Christmas, C-man and Miss-O sat on Santa's lap and whispered in his ear. Miss-O didn't cry this year!
Here's a carrot for the Reindeer!
Writing a letter to Santa
Is this mine dollhouse?
"He came!"
