Complaints or gratitude?

I wrote a while back about seeing a widening crack in my basement wall that brought on stories my brain was telling of “doom and gloom”, with the dramatic ending of my becoming a bag lady.  As I said, at the time it was helpful to remember that this was a “storyline” being told by my brain and not necessarily the truth.

That happened a few years ago, and the widening crack wasn’t a problem at the time.  However, the drought last summer brought other cracks at various places in the house that were of concern.  A foundation repair company recommended that we have some piers put in under the foundation for what amounted to be, in my estimation, a small fortune.  After some further bids and deciding to do SOME of what was recommended we proceeded to have the work done.

One day George and I were showing some friends the excavation work that had been done to put the piers in place.  This resulted in the need to do extensive re-landscape work, including digging up all of our garden, rebuilding terracing, etc.  As we showed all of this “damage” to our friends, I found myself complaining about the hassle and expenses involved.  One friend said, “Yes, but isn’t great to have the resources to get this done?”

I noticed I felt irritated.  Didn’t she know that I would much rather spend money on vacations, or new carpeting, or something FUN??  Why did she have to be so upbeat about all of this?  How annoying!

It took a few days, but I began to let in this new perspective, which invited me to really take stock of the ATTITUDE I was carrying about all of this.  While part of me wanted to hang on to my “complaint”, I realized how much better it felt to move into gratitude.  My friend was correct:  we were really blessed to have the resources to complete this project and have a stabilized home.  To change my focus to “blessed” instead of “hassled” made all the difference in how I felt.

It seems to me that living mindfully doesn’t make problems and challenges go away, but it does change how much I enjoy myself along the way.  It also changes my ability to bring my best resources to meet the challenges, instead of getting lost in my worst fears or most negative attitudes.

Wishing you a mindful moments.

© Copyright 2013 Marlene Wine-Chase