Count Your Blessings — Name Them One By One

On a recent flight, I read Michael J. Fox’s take on “Coping with Adversity”. He said “It was only when I could accept the fact that I had Parkinson’s disease that I began to think, ‘What haven’t I lost?’ I haven’t lost my enthusiasm. I haven’t lost my intelligence. I haven’t lost my passion for life, my love of my family, my curiosity.”

I love that — when adversity comes — it’s easy to throw in the towel and give up, and ask the questions “Why me?” It’s easy to throw a pity party and invite all our friends to it (we post it on FB, we text message, we make phone calls, we email and we carry that “woe is me” attitude with us everywhere we go). Michael J. Fox refused to be defeated. He got it. He counted his blessings. And that’s what we need to do when disappointment comes knocking on our door. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it’s embarassing. Yes, it causes us to have to take many steps back and have to start over again. But, like Michael J. Fox, if we’ll refuse to be defeated, and we look at what we have, instead of what we’ve lost or don’t have — we’ll rebound with “I may be taking a step back — but get ready… I’m preparing for my comeback!”

Don’t we want that to be the legacy we leave to those who are following behind us? Don’t we want them to say “She/He never gave up. They gave their all — when their all was all they had to give! They never knew the word “quit”. They never knew failure — because they kept trying.”
I’m refusing the temptation to complain about anything…..rather, I’m counting my blessings right now….and naming them one by one! And, by the way, YOU are one of my treasured blessings!