Count Your [Bleeeeeep]ing Blessings!

Life is hard.  And I say that knowing that my life is pretty damn easy.

But still, when I say that life is hard, I don’t mean the, “This internet is so slow,” kind of hard, or the, “They spelled my name wrong on my coffee cup 4 times this week,” kind of hard.

It doesn’t matter who you are or how much you have, as soon as you start caring about people, life gets hard.

“They’re splitting up?  That seemed like the perfect marriage!”

“She was diagnosed with what? She’s so  young!”

I could go on, but you have your own italicized statements.  You know what I mean. But you take those kinds of things, add in crappy internet service, bad traffic, Dunkin’ Donuts being out of donuts (How does that happen?  It’s in your name!  I don’t care if you have muffins.  No one comes here for muffins!), and pretty quickly we can be convinced that life sucks.  All of it.

But it doesn’t really.  We know that it doesn’t.  We just need to be reminded of that.  And frankly no one else is going to remind us.  No one we like, anyway.  Sure, someone may say something like, “The soul would have no rainbow had the eye no tear.”  But I usually want to throat punch those people.

Bottom line, we need to be intentional about reminding ourselves that life is good.  Some people write things down that they’re grateful for. Some people meditate. Me?  I have this.

Now don’t get me wrong, she’s not perfect. One time the vet called, asking if our internet was working because they had just pulled a length of coaxial cable out of her kiester. (You read that right.)

But I’m usually the last person out of the house in the morning.  I give her a rawhide every morning when I leave.  Every day I toss it to her.  Every day she jumps to catch it.  Every day she misses.  Every day.  She sucks so bad at catching, but tries so hard every damn day, it is impossible not to leave the house smiling. At night, she lies at the top of the stairs, and when I come up, I hear the, “Thump, thump, thump,” of her tail on the wood floor. No matter how shitty a day it’s been, I have that.

I’m not suggesting everyone run out and get a dog (but everyone should).  I am saying that things are happening all around you, simple things to remind you that life is good, it’s going to be okay.

Pay attention.  You’ll be glad  and grateful you did.