Counting Your Blessings

It was an epically bad week that began with the ex texting me constantly to remind me how irresponsible I am. (This while I was on a field trip with approximately 100 middle schoolers to an amusement park 3 hours away for a chorus competition.) It ended with my dog being bitten by a copperhead snake in the back yard. (Her face is swollen so badly she looks like a different breed, but she's ok.) Somewhere in the middle were huge setbacks at work. So somewhere around the middle of the week I began feeling sorry for myself. And this morning I sat down to whine it out in my journal. I love writing; it gives me a chance to step back from my whatever drama is taking place in my life and get a little perspective. And this morning was no different. As soon as I started writing about how terrible my life is I remembered an acquaintance who is a teacher telling me this week that one of her former students had committed suicide. He was in 8th grade. She was concerned because one of the boy's friends had my last name. She wanted to know if it could be my son? I remembered how badly my daughter was bullied two years ago and gave thanks that my children are happy and healthy. Then I remembered The Hunger Games. I attempted to read the book a couple of weeks ago. And while it is a fictional story, there are so many children who know that kind of desperation. There are children in our world who have no choice but to kill or be killed. And I gave thanks that I never have to worry about how to feed my children and that they are not exposed to constant violence. And my outlook on the situation changed completely. Yes, I have challenges. But I am infinitely blessed.