“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” ~ Frederick Keonig
Not a long wordy post today (pause for shock and awe), as I am a bit tired, as a matter of fact, I was just writing a pitch for an opportunity and nearly fell asleep, so I think it’s a sign to be thankful for knowing your own limits. That said, this image is the very essence of ‘mynewfavoriteday.’
I now spend a lot of time on Facebook on my page interacting with the audience that is growing at an incredible clip (yeah!) and so I come across and share a lot of images that I find inspiring or beautiful for some reason or another, but this one touches my heart in the purest way. It is one to savor. Here on the ‘mynewfavoriteday’ home is where I savor it. Where I can take off my shoes, sip a cup of coffee, and take deep breath with just us.This is where this sign belongs.
If I could make the sign I would put it on the doorway to our home (KSP probably wouldn’t love that, so maybe the shed, or on the back of my car window (How awesome would that be? Can you imagine the looks in LA?:) but I digress, again, see, tired).
I started ‘mynewfavoriteday’ because I needed to find my way back to pure happiness. To remember what is was like to feel lighthearted. My heart was heavy, my mind was heavy, and while my outer shell projected confidence and acceptance, my soft center was dark, tarnished and hollow. So I practiced, everyday. Diligently being thankful first for my children, moments, smiles, laughs, turning challenging situations into opportunities to be thankful. And slowly ever so slowly, I felt the lightness coming. Not all at once, but one moment at a time. More laughing, less crying. Don’t get me wrong, I still cry, it is part of healing, but not the same heart wrenching, my heart hurts and wants to jump out of my body cry. It is a cry of acknowledging, sometimes accepting and trying to let go. And sometimes it’s crying for thanks and gratitude to God, to my babies, family, friends, you, Max the Toddler Cat, our doctors, therapists, nurses, insurance,, everything that we have that supports us in our ultimate gift of having our precious angels.
So today, while you don’t have to hang this sign literally on your door, shed or back of your car, hang it on your heart. No matter where it is or how tightly sealed that door might be right now, maybe with even just practice rounds it may contribute, even if a small bit, to some more happiness which makes it a ‘newfavoriteday’ for us all.
mynewfavoriteday 
Shannon,
I wish I’d had this this past weekend. My son’s therapist wanted to use our success with his methods as an example in a lecture and was looking for ways to say just this.
All I could think of was from the Disney Pollyanna movie where the girl is talking to the preacher and quoted her father by saying “If you look for the bad in people, you will surely find it.” I think it fits our situations in that if all we see and hear are the gloom and doom predictions for our kids, that’s what we will believe. And the depression over it will ruin all our lives.
But, as you and I both found, by looking at the “glad” things (Pollyanna again!) it makes things go better and keeps our eyes open to the beautiful little people our children really are. It allows us to look at their strengths, rather than their weaknesses, and use them as building blocks for the life we want for our children.
And, as Pollyanna said “the ‘game’ is more fun if it’s harder to find the ‘glad’ things.” Well, I don’t know about the more fun part, but at least it keeps us from brooding over the bad things.
By the way, I’d never read the Pollyanna book. I got curious if all that wisdom came from Disney or from the original author. It was the author. Amazon has the book available for free from their Kindle collection. You don’t need a Kindle to read it, their books will download to computers, too.
I think the book Pollyanna will fit nicely into my own new favorite day. Thanks for sharing!
Faith
Thanks so much for sharing this faith. So funny, I too only know the legend of Pollyanna, but refer to her frequently in my own mind! I am so glad to hear your son is making progress! That is such wonderful news. It really is all in our ability to see the good, the positive, the tiny or big things that are progress, different than before, going in the right direction. I am going to download the book and maybe we can compare notes:) So nice to see your name here…you were my first real bloggy friend and it is one of the things that I am thankful for and therefore makes me happy:)
Shannon,
We did have very good results with our summer experiment. Who knew there was such a thing as a functional neurologist chiropractor? Or that he’d be able to see into Ben’s brain and find the spots that needed help without needles, drugs, or scary things. I keep meaning to tell you to e-mail me since we have a lot in common. I had to shut down Ben’s blog because a couple of weird websites had found us.
Faith
I will email you and I am so so so happy for you guys and Ben! That’s amazing. I will email you offline and we can chat more.