What I Know For Sure

As I was sitting in a waiting room last week at a wisdom teeth consult for my son McKay, I picked up Oprah's O Magazine and was thumbing through it.  I haven't ever really read her magazine cover to cover as far as the hard copy version, though I have read several articles from the online version.  As I was perusing it, I came across this page:

For some reason it inspired me to want to do my own What I Know For Sure post.  So welcome to the first edition of What I Know For Sure.  I may not have the audience, the know how, the circle of influential friends, and of course not the budget that Oprah has, but I do have my own life experience and I enjoy writing about those happenings.  I haven't yet decided if it will be a monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly post yet.  That may have to wait until I figure out if there is anything I really know for sure!  But for now, here is the first installment: 

Gratitude.

That one little word has had the biggest impact on my life in ways I can't even begin to explain.  

I have often said that gratitude is like magic.  It has the power to change your life.  It has the power to release pain.  It has the power to create happiness.  It has the power that I only wish I had known when I was much younger. 

My love – okay worship – for this word came shortly after I lost my 17 year old son Tyson nine years ago.  I mean I had always been taught to be grateful and I also taught my five boys that I expected them to be grateful for all they had.  We even kept a family gratitude journal and I kept many of my own personal gratitude journals.  But until I lost Tyson and was forced to deal with pain that I had never experienced before – the kind of pain that I didn't realize even existed until then – the kind of pain that brings you to your knees and makes you beg for relief – I had no clue how powerful gratitude really was.  

What I know for sure is that life is going to bring us all to a few of those on your knees kind of moments.  Those moments where you completely give in and tell Heavenly Father that you can't do this on your own and you have no idea how you are going to get through each day without some form of help.  Moments (sometimes hours, sometimes even days or weeks) when you desperately seek for relief of some kind and beg the heavens for an answer on how to find it.  No matter who you are, you will have those moments.  It's really why you are here.  To be tested.  And those tests are not for sissys. 

I have had many of those moments.  Most of mine have been since losing my precious son.  Though some were during that process of his long term illness before he passed.  Because of those moments (and there were many and sometimes there still are) I have a sure knowledge that no matter how bad we think things are, no matter how low we get, no matter how much we want our pain to go away, there is always a sure way to feel better.  Almost instantly. 

Gratitude.

Gratitude is the impetus that can make all the difference.  

But it isn't as simple as it sounds.  It is work.  Hard work.  It takes practice. But it is worth every effort and time given.  When we are able to stop and focus our thoughts towards seeking for what there is in our pain to be grateful for – IN THAT MOMENT –  the magic takes over.  

Then it becomes easy.  Once the magic takes over, the pain lessens.  Happiness arrives. 

There is always something we can find in any circumstance to be grateful for.  

Someday I believe scientists will find a formula, or some scientific reason how this magic works, but until they do, trust me on this one.☺

It's one thing I know for sure.