Use your words - Attitude Is Key

I'm participating in two writing challenges today. This one is Use Your Words. After you've read it, be sure to click here to read my A - Z challenge on Dogs

 
I sat there. Staring outside. It was raining.

I watched the rain drops and tried to see them individually as I was trying to concentrate on each one. The harder I tried, the more difficult it became. I never minded the rain. Living in the Northwest U S, we get a lot of rain and people complain about it all the time.

But then, that is how a lot of people go through life – complaining instead of expressing gratitude. I try to find something to be thankful for every day. There were many days in the not so distant past, that I didn't care if I woke up in the morning. I didn't care if I ever saw another day.

I knew when something awful was about to happen

There were many times I would get this gnawing feeling that wouldn't go away and I knew something bad was going to happen. I started to expect it. I began to live in a very negative state.

Life was so stressful and I didn't know how much more I could handle. But I forced myself to find something to laugh about, something to sing about. I learned how to listen to other people's problems so that I could encourage them and help them to realize that they will get through it, just as I had. When we encourage others, we encourage ourselves. If we listen, we will always find someone who is worse off than ourselves.

 The KEY is attitude

We often refer to our problems as what we are going “through.” That is the key – we are going through them, we are not staying in the problem. Having the right attitude puts life in a totally different perspective.

As long as we are still alive, there is always hope that things will turn around. Our hope may be beaten and battered but we can still hold on to it and it will encourage us.  A friend recently told me, "I have known you for 20 years and have seen you go through unbelievable trauma, but in all those years and all those trials, you have never lost your joy."  We make the choice of how we will handle our circumstances.

Surrounding ourselves with positive thoughts (and positive people) sheds a warmth and new life that only hope can give.

The rain will pass, spring will come.  It always does.

Today's post was a writing challenge.  Participating bloggers picked 4 - 6 words or phrases for someone else to craft into a post.  All words must be used once.  The twist is no one knows who  sent them their words or how their own set of words will be used until today!

My words were gratitude, hope, gnawing, rain and warmth. 
They were submitted to me by Juicebox Confession.

Please visit the other participating bloggers and see how they used their words:

Baking In A Tornado

Follow Me Home

Stacy Sews and Schools  

Outmanned

Someone Else's Genius

Confessions of a part-time working mom

The Momisodes

Impoverished Vegan

Spatulas on Parade

Evil Joy Speaks

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