We humans can turn on a dime. Yesterday I was counting blessings, participating in the One Thousand Gifts over at Ann's, thinking positive, counting blooms and blessings. Today on my walk, it seemed all I could count were weeds! I saw the brown trees this years freeze destroyed. I saw weeds in several yards.....My mind was like a ticker tape of negativity......"Why doesn't the park enforce their own rules?" and "Why do we even have a home owner's association?" I went on like this halfway around the perimeter until something strange happened. I got ticked at myself.
Something happens when you really start to count gifts. It changes how you think, and you no longer want to think the other way, the old way. We talk about paradigm shifts a lot at work. That is what happens in your mind when you cross over to living a life in gratitude to God, when you keep count. It not only changes your thinking, it changes your life.
It is a new determination you have......not to give in. So I walked on determined not to see the weeds or the brown trees this morning. I told myself and God that I was not going home until I started seeing beauty and blessings. I am kind of stubborn that way. Do you suppose that was God's plan for me today?
This is what I saw.......A dove nesting in a spiny cactus........groups of quail walking across the road. A bunny eating the veggies someone had left out. I heard the cry of a cactus wren, I call them all "Renny" for the one who lived in the cactus next door. Here is the thought that came to me.......These little desert creatures scurry about very happy to be what they are. They don't pay attention to the weeds unless they can find something useful about them. If they can't eat them, or use them for shelter they ignore them.
That was my lesson today.
I just had to laugh last night, as I picked up Elaine's Mom from the nursing home where she had just visited her husband of 60 years, "That man is the most negative person on the planet, he finds absolutely no good in anything." What?? This from a woman who is equally negative about anything and everything. Once, the three of us were walking along on an impossibly beautiful sapphire blue sky day. Elaine made a comment about how beautiful the sky was, and her Mom said caustically, "Well, Elaine the sky is always blue." We still joke about it.
Like she says......."Where did I come from?" She learned to count blessings a long time ago, against all the odds. Despite her surroundings, despite the people who raised her.
Yes, Lord......despite our circumstances, surroundings........we can be positive, it is possible, if we let the counting, and God renew our minds.
Weeds by Andrew Schmidt
Dandelions by Petr Kratochvil
Oh Lori - what a beautiful perspective, and contagious, I pray.
ReplyDeleteAndie
Andie, yes I pray that it is somewhat contagious. Elaine's Mom has seemed better away from her husband. I really think they fed off each other as two negatives sometimes do. I am praying her stay with us will be a change for good :-)
ReplyDeleteLORI,
ReplyDeleteYou walk, I watch the birds.... They teach me community, cooperation, freedom, not to fear, and dependence on God. They also teach me beauty and variety. And did you know your name means Kindness to me for all the kind notes you have shared?
In Jesus, Bill
You are so right -- what a wonderful perspective. You know, on my visit home it seemed to me that my sister was excessively negative. I don't know if she was more negative than usual...or if I have miraculously turned more positive (and that would be one major miracle for this formerly glass half empty girl!).
ReplyDeleteMichelle, it could be you are more conscious of it. I know when you are away for awhile you get a new perspective on how things really are when you go back into it......We are all walking miracles I think! It is a miracle that I actually got up and came to work today!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting! Lori
Man, God's gifts stack high, and we can still look over them and see what we don't have.
ReplyDeleteAnd, btw, as I was typing this post, your music was playing, "It is well with my soul." My dad's favorite song --- I need to send you my blog entry for that.....
Now, there's a gift from God: well souls....
:)