Sometimes I forget how lucky I am...by Vonnie Davis

Have you ever noticed how old people complain? They moan about aches and pains, being constipated, having to go steps, rude people, the price of food and teenagers' music. Well, I'm there, folks. And I have to admit so are a lot of younger individuals. Children, teenagers, young adults and senior citizens....we're all bitching about something.

We've become a country of whiners, people! 

And it's damned unbecoming!

 

 

 I'm ashamed to admit I've become quite skilled at the talent, myself. I live in a country with a lot of issues, yet I'm blessed with many liberties and freedoms. I have some minor health problems, yet I can do most of what I want. I mean, I'll never run a 5K race, but I can hurry my butt into a shoe store when there's a sale's going on. My kids all live in different states and I don't see them enough, yet we text, call and email--and they know Mom loves 'em to bits. I get migraines that blind me, yet I can still feel my husband's arms around me as he leads me to bed until the worst of it passes. I have a sore on my abdomen that won't heal, but it's only one and not dozens. My writing schedule is hectic beyond belief, but I'm writing for two of the Big Five and I'm on schedule with my manuscripts. I also have some pretty darn terrific friends online, beautiful people I've never met and yet we click. We get each other. And I have my Calvin.

I am one very blessed woman!

It's all a matter of perspective and heart-attitude, isn't it? We have two choices--to be happy or bitchy. How many of us have met people with cancer or those who have lost more than any one person should lose and yet they are happy with what they have. They are keepin' on keepin' on. Or, as so many say, "I am faking it until I'm making it."

 

I'm sharing one of the first poems Calvin ever read to me. It's full of metaphors and truth and determination --

Mother To Son by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.

But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on,

And reachin' landin's,

And turnin' corners,

And sometimes goin' in the dark

Where there ain't been no light.

So, boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps.

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

Don't you fall now—

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

  

 I CHALLENGE YOU ALL TO TAKE A WEEK TO COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. AND REMEMBER, SOMETIMES BAD THINGS ARE BEAUTIFUL BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE.