Day 1 Thankfulness and Giving

I try to practice thankfulness each day.  I have a special notebook, it has a special place for me to write it down, and yet, with all this and the fact that I have so much to be thankful for; I find myself getting wrapped up in the hectic pace of life and losing my focus. Therefore, each year around this time, I like to reflect on all there is to be thankful for and to practice kindness and sharing.  So, without further fanfare, I give you:

Day 1 Thankfulness and Giving

This year, more than most, I have needed to reflect on my past. While I would like to say it is all rainbows, butterflies and unicorns; because that would mean I have achieved adulthood, I have my life together, and I am Wonder Woman and can do it all. The fact of the matter is, my life has sometimes been made up of some really bad decisions or paths that I didn’t choose but also didn’t fight to change; which has led to a series of consequences that were sometimes hard to survive and move forward from. Yet, I find myself still here; a survivor, and someone who is thankful for these mistakes.

Oh, I know, it sounds crazy for me to say I am thankful for my mistakes but hear me out. I say this to you, because with every choice I have made, or every path I have traveled, the good and the bad, it has led me to the life that I am living in this moment. These mistakes, these consequences; they have forced me to grow, to be strong; they have made me who I am today.

A wise soul once told me, “You can’t know happiness without sadness, you can’t appreciate comfort without first experiencing pain, and you can’t know what you are capable of until you are pushed passed your breaking point.”

I am here today, with all my past experiences in tow, able to embrace happiness, let go of the pain and understand that I am a compassionate, caring, stubborn, opinionated, highly competitive, immortal Amazon (a.k.a. Wonder Woman!)

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Old Friends Dog Sanctuary (www.ofsds.org)
• RSPCA of the UK (www.rspca.org.uk)
• Maddie & Friends, Inc.
• Columbus Diaper Bank (www.columbusdiaperbank.org)