Life is like a bowl of cherries

There are always a certain amount of pits among the sweet fruits of life. And as I age, I seem to notice the pits more. About 3 years ago, I fell and broke my leg. I thought I would be in a cast for 6 weeks and then my life would return to normal. Beautiful dreamer. At the end of 6 weeks another xray showed it had not even begun to heal. Seeing my primary physician, and some tests showed that I had developed diabetes. So with the diabetes and growing older, that meant the healing process was going to be longer. Four months longer. At the end of that time I found I had lost " normal" along the way. Now my stamina was at a new low. Naps were no longer a luxury, but had become a necessity. I could no longer eat whatever I wanted or go without eating for long periods of time. Diabetes forced me to keep a schedule. Arthritis had been working overtime during this time as well. In other words my body had taken over by falling apart!! What I knew as normal was suddenly lost and gone forever. What to do? I did what most crazy old ladies would do. Threw a gigantic pity party. But of course no one wants to attend a pity party so I sat alone in my own misery for a while. I could almost hear Dr. Phill saying " How's that working for you?" It wasn't. That is a lonely place. Finally I began to contemplate where I could go from there. I soon realized there was no turning back to regain the old normal. My only option was to move forward and make a new normal for myself. One that included naps as needed, eating on a schedule and letting go of activities that couldn't meet the needs of my new normal. I decided one of the important things I needed in my new life was to remove as much complaining and negativity as possible. I knew that was going to be a huge task! After all, I had formed a strong habit of venting negativity. I needed a huge change of attitude. The opposite of complaining is being grateful. So I decided I would begin a gratitude journal. I made only two rules concerning it. 1. I needed to post one thing I was grateful for each day. 2. For 365 days I could not repeat any of the things previously mentioned. That wasn't too difficult for the first month. But then there were days when I thought I needed a grumble journal instead. I had to really concentrate to come up with something new to be grateful for. But it did get easier as time went on. One day I realized I wasn't thinking of my cup being half full or half empty. I came to the realizaion that my life and my world was full and overflowing with blessings. 2018 came and went and at the end of the year, I flipped through the pages and was blessed so much by what I saw there. I decided I wanted to continue keeping a gratitude journal in 2019. And I want to ask others to join me and share with me the glories of gratitude. Once I figure out who to approach with this idea, I will suggest we meet every two weeks to share our gratitudes. This is so much better than a pity party! I admit I am still working on developing a new normal for myself. I'll share with you, my progress as time goes along. My gratitude for today? That I can turn a facet and warm water comes out. My grandmother didn't have that luxury. Many people today don't either. S.