I have been thinking on gratitude a lot today. I have a child who, despite all he has been blessed with just doesn't GET gratitude. Doesn't get it. And I don't know what to do to help him see and understand all that he has. It is frustrating.
I have always been a "glass half full" kind of girl. I don't know how else to do it. And I am so grateful for that gift alone because I see how others struggle to find the good in the crappiest of situations. I most strikingly noticed this trait about myself 7 years ago. My husband and I were in Mexico on vacation when I suddenly miscarried at almost 13 weeks. It was totally unexpected and devastating. We had a 2 1/2 year old and 4 year old at home and they both were excited to have a new sibling. While I was waiting to go into surgery, I was alone with just a pad and paper (my phone had died). I decided to make a list of the things I was grateful for in spite of just suffering a loss. It was a silly list...but it was a lifeline for me. And that simple act of writing down what I was grateful for in a moment of quiet sadness and desperation set the course of how I was to deal with a loss. It showed me something about myself. It showed me that even at the worst moment, I am STILL a glass half full kind of girl.
But how do you teach that to someone else? Is it something they either have or they don't? Is it a personality trait? Can you learn it? If you CAN learn it, does that lesson only come by heartache and hardship? I truly do not know.
I can see how hard life can be for someone who is not grateful. I don't want that life of "lack" for my children. This is one of those days where being a human being...just being a parent seems very very hard.
