an attitude of gratitude

When you look at the image to the left, what do you think?
Gosh, my drink is nearly gone or I'm so glad I still have so much left?
It's the eternal question, glass half filled or glass half empty.

Why am I puzzling over this today?
Two things happened to make me ponder this.
I was at an all day meeting today and spent some time with someone I have known professionally for over 20 years. Since we have such a long history and know each other personally as well it was nice to catch up on how the families are doing. Later in the discussion we were relating what we do (Breastfeeding advocates) to chronic conditions such as asthma. Patty says that she remembers the day that Travis (who was a long term breast feeder) was diagnosed with asthma. He was only about 4-6 months old and had recovered from a bout of RSV when his chronic cough signaled something else. Patty says she vividly remembers me coming in to work and saying that finding out your child has a chronic illness isn't great but that seeing a child in the waiting room with a devastating problem was far worse and put our issues into perspective. I was grateful that what he had was not life threatening and we would be able to deal with it. Now, 20 years later, she tells me how my optimism affected her. Wow, funny how you can affect someone without even knowing it!

On the drive home the talk show host was talking about attitudes and how some people just have the healthy outlook that prevents them from becoming mired in their perceived troubles. I hope you are one of those. I think I am. The trick I think is to be grateful for even the little things in your life. Try to avoid feeling entitled . . .that will always back fire on you. Every night before I go to sleep I spend a few minutes just reflecting on my gratitude for the things I have, family, health, etc. Try it, it's free, it won't make you fat and you just may feel better. If you aren't religious, it doesn't have to be a prayer, just a consious decision to be thankful.

I just can't wait until I can add "thank you for helping me master the flip turn"