Commiting to Writing, and to Gratitude

In an attempt to jumpstart my creative juices, I decided to join Blogher's National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), which means I'm declaring my intention to post something each day this month. I had been thinking about doing something like this but was pretty sure that I'd lose steam at some point because I wouldn't be able to think of things to write about. But then I saw a post from one blogger who is posting every day about things she is thankful for and that stuck me as something I could do, and it would be good for me to boot. So here I am...

I'm not sure if I'll follow all the prompts from Champagne to Crayons but the first one is "A blessing" and that seems like a very good place to start (I am now hearing Julie Andrews singing "Let's start at the very beginning..." in my head). The only issue is that I have so many blessings in my life that I am thankful for, I can't really choose just one. Of course there are the biggies: my relationship with J; close friends and family; relatively good health; a secure job that I enjoy. There are also the blessings that aren't quite so vital but certainly contribute greatly to my happiness, like living in San Diego where the weather is always perfect, in a hip neighborhood with lots of great food options; or having access to technology that allows me to see my sister and nephew even though they live on the other side of the world. These are things that I give thanks for on a pretty regular basis.

But today, I think I'll celebrate the 'blessings in disguise', those blessings that seem like anything but good at the time they are happening. For me, a huge 'blessing in disguise' is the fact that my previous relationships were with men who simply were not that into me. Totally sucked at the time - I "wasted" a good ten years of my life being miserable because I wanted more from those men than they were ever going to give me. But today, I thank god that neither of those guys was willing/able to commit to a real relationship because if they had, I think it's probably pretty unlikely that I would have gotten the personal help I needed to rebuild my self-esteem, and I certainly would never have met J.

Thinking about how things so often out in the end helps me keep life in perspective. Nowadays, when something does not go as I had hoped (like when I recently was rejected for an administrative position at my university that looked like it was 'perfect' for me), I find it much easier to truly believe that maybe this means something better is supposed to come along.

What blessings are you celebrating today?