Recounting my blessings.

     Six years ago today I had surgery on my shoulder.  When I woke from anesthesia I was paralyzed down due to an "accident" moving me from the gurney to the operating table.  For a week I lay in a hospital bed unable to move from the waist down.  Recovery has been long and ongoing.  But, I am in recovery!
     Last year during an ultrasound a lump was discovered and my doctor thought I most likely had cancer.  Cancer!  Waiting for tests, contemplating the best to the worst scenarios, telling my family and friends and more were pure torture.  Yet, the end result was that the growth was not cancerous and I could relax.  Today I do not have cancer.
     On February 16th of this year I was working in the yard moving firewood rounds to where they would be split and stored.  I felt tired and shortly after that had a heart attack.  Double bypass surgery was on the 23rd and then recovery.  But, I have recovery!  I could very well have died or been disabled from the heart attack.  Today my heart is stronger than ever.
     We all have blessings that have come from the positive experiences in our lives.  They are the ones we like to focus on.  Out of happy circumstances has come happy blessings.  Theses are not a common as we think.  Prayer groups have been mobilized at all times of the day and night for someone here or there in peril.  Why?  Because we have been impacted with something negative from a laceration to death of a loved one.  You see, when we are already in a positive place in life the blessing is expected.  When we are in the negative place in life we are wondering where the blessing is or will come from.  In all three examples above I was not happy and certainly did not feel blessed.  In all three examples my life was devastated and left in a mound of junk on the floor.  It's very hard to see much less believe that good will come out of some situations.  When someone tells me that everything will turn out okay; I don't feel blessed. 
     I try to do something radical every day.  No, I don't go to street protests where I might be arrested.  That would not be a blessing.  No, I do things for others and don't tell anyone I have done them. It may be as simple as paying the bill for an elderly couple in a restaurant.  It might be doing something nice for my neighbor.  Perhaps that which is done in secret is the blessing we all seek anyway.  Giving out of my excess (I have been blessed with a lot) to those who don't have.  One of the blessings I like to give out is to listen.  People want to have someone who will listen.  We don't want to have a counseling session, we just want to be able to talk with someone.  Blessings for others are not ignored.  God says that if we bless others, he will bless us.  Notice that God doesn't say we will avoid negatives in our lives.
     Sometime, when you have the time, check out all the events, conversations, relationships where you were blessed.  Write them down for a permanent record you can look back on.  Tell yourself that you are blessed AND then give the blessing away.  You cannot give away enough blessing.  What you can do is help others to have hope in difficult times.  Friends and family were strong supporters and maintained a deep level of love for me in those three times in my life and many more!  Whether we like it or not, we tend to forget the exercise of recounting our blessings.  We need to have the remembrance in order to appreciate the blessing.  Have a blessed day!