Yesterday I wrote about joy. I just wanted to continue with some ideas about that today.

One of the things that can keep me from being happy, joyous, and free is negativity. I am not sure when it became easier to be negative but it is just so easy to slip into the nobody-loves-me—frame of mind than to walk through life seeing the beauty and joy in everything.

I know that an open dialogue with God is the best way to squash this attitude and yet I get convinced that I can do it all myself and lose touch with my Higher Power. A big part of my conversations with HP is gratitude. At night and often during the day I stop for a while and talk to God about the things that I am grateful for. If I don’t do this then I get so caught up in how wonderful everybody else is and what a slug I am.

On Monday I was caught up in a particularly frantic mommy day. After drop-offs and pickups and extra activities I was worn down but in a pretty good place. Then hubby monster called to tell me that a friend of ours (35 years old) had died that day. This can really take the wind out of the old sails. We were all really close when we were in high school so this made me want to dwell on the morbid reality that we are not invincible any more. I decided to think of the fun times we all had together.

I remembered a time when we were at this guy’s house and went night swimming in the lake. Since it was dark we decided to skinny dip. We were all laughing so hard that we were lucky not to drown. Good times!

There is so much to be thankful for every day even when things seem to be overwhelming. If I can stay open to the things HP gives me then I can stay out of the negative and in the joy!