Thankful Thursday - Laughing and the Little Things

At the beginning of 2013, I decided that everyday, I was going to be intentionally thankful for something.   I have an absolutely amazing life filled with so much many things that I should be overflowing with Thankfulness.  Yet at the end of 2012, I found that I had lost sight of the many, many things I have to be thankful.  You see, the one thing I have always desired most in my life and that it  seems that there is nothing I can do to change, is still missing.  I was allowing that one little missing thing (OK to me it is not really little, it is huge, but the size is beside the fact it is one thing compared to the million of other things I have) to cloud my vision to the point that I was missing the things that were happening all around me that made my life so amazing.  So, since January 1st, I have been intentionally thankful for something.  As I began keeping track of all of those things, I have found that more often than not, it is the little things that I have the most gratitude for in my life -- often it is even the silly things.  As the year has gone on, I have realized that it is the little, silly things that add up to the amazing life I have been given and made since moving to North Carolina.  So as I continue in this blog, I think it is only fair to warn you, that sometime my Thankful Thursday may seem little or even a bit silly. My hope is that as you read the menagerie of my thankfulness, you will collect one of your own.  On this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful for all the little things that bring a smile to my face. I'm sure in the future, I'll be sharing some of these little silly things, but for today I am just thankful that there are so many in my world. 

Wishing you lots of little joys in this day!

The Holy Blonde 

Bruises - Thankful Thursday

This is a post I posted in my blog that I was going to dedicate to being thankful, so sorry if you already read it. I thought it was the best way to start my Thankful Thursday post. 

First, 99% I have one or more unexplained bruises on my body.  There are a two reasons for this: 

First, I am extremely clumsy.  Most kids hit a growth spurt around middle school where they seem to be all arms and leg.  Around that time they seem to loose all coordination, mainly because parts of their bodies have out grown other part.  After a few years, everything catches up, they regain control of their bodies, and they a lot less unexpected falls.  Well for some reason, I never seemed to grow into my arms and legs.  So, I still fall.....a lot....and most of the time on flat ground.   It happened the first frost last November, I fell so hard on flat ground I had to get a X-Ray to make sure my foot was not broken.  In addition, I am constantly bumping into things -- door handles, tables, glass walls, etc.  My mother and sister are more than happy to share with your many many stories about my inability to walk.  

Second, I have Lupus which causes me to have poor circulation, so I bruise extremely easy.   Sometimes if I am touched in just the right place with just the right pressure, I'll have a bruise for weeks.  It is always funny to me when someone who I don't know well inquires about an awful looking bruise.   They are completely complex when I reply, "I have no idea."  Most of them cannot imagine having a bruise without knowing what cause it.  Unexplained bruises have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Yet, another source of entertainment for my mother and sister.

So, bruises have always been a big part of my daily experience.

Obviously, the bruises on my body do not turn pink and green -- although sometimes if I get a really nice one there is a green tint.  

The pink and green bruise I am talking about are those events in my life that leave a mark that hurts....for a long time.  Eventually even the deepest and most painful physical bruises fade away and you cannot even remember where it was.  However, those bruises that are caused on ones hearts by life events may fade, but they never really go away.  In some ways you never want them to go away because they make you who you are.

Part of what I am doing with this Year of Thankfulness is looking at those bruises in my life and finding what they have help create the pretty world in which I live.  While I will never be thankful for the pain I or anyone else has experienced in our lives, I work to see where that pain has brought forth something of beauty.  As a Christian, I believe that God is constantly working to bring about new life in our world -- light in the darkness.  Spending time turning my bruises from black and blue to pink and green is my way of finding the light that has been revealed in even the darkest of times.

While my bruises will always be a part of me, I choose to make them something that makes me prettier -- just like my favorite Lilly Pulitzer pink and green shift does when I'm having a grey day.

One of the great things about bruises -- is that everyone has them -- the physical and metaphorical ones.  In someways, part of what connects us as humans is our ability to be bruised.  Luckily, we are also connected in our ability to be healed.

In December, Train released a song with Ashley Monroe about this

I love what the chorus says:

These bruises make for better conversation  

Loses the vibe that separates 

It's good to let you in again  

You're not alone in how you've been  

Everybody loses  

We all got bruises  

We all got bruises

However in my opinion, the best wisedom is found in the bridge:

I would love to fix it all for you 

(I would love to fix you too) 

Please don't fix a thing whatever you do

I look at the people in my life who's hearts are filled with deep bruises and long to fix them -- I long to take away the pain.  But I know, that just as my bruises makes me who I am, their bruises do the same.  Because I love them, I don't fix a thing, I hope that theirs will turn pink and green eventually too.  

The Holy Blonde