GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS : ” SMILE AWHILE”

"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. 

And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, 

you can survive it."  

Bill Cosby

Today I am grateful for Laughter.

I am sure you have realized more than once that when you are  stressed about things,  all you  have to do is be given the chance at a very good laugh and then you feel so much better. It might be just for a moment, but it feels good.

The matter I wrote about for my last ‘Grateful Wednesday’ post, have me feeling a bit conflicted and even angry at times. The thing is, I know God is at work, as I can feel it, but as we all know, the humanness in us, at times, try to help God out along the way and we are left with nothing but more conflict and stress.

Thank God for my children, as they are helping me preserve my sanity at  times. The other evening, while my son , (now 6) was about to start his homework,  his sister (now 2) ,threw a book and hit him smack in the middle of his chest, I thought he would began bawling, (as he often does when his sister beats up on him), instead after gaining his composure, said, “girl, you going to kill my heart and cause your only brother to die.” I could not help it, I had a hearty laugh.

Last night I was putting his sister to sleep and she had actually began dozing off, when  he hopped onto the bed and decided it was time to play with her. Of course, she got up instantly, all bright eyed and bushy tail as she is not one to miss out on a good play with her brother. Realizing that I was about to lose this battle, I said to him, “don’t you see I was putting your sister to sleep and now you have awaken her and riled her up.” He said to me, matter-a-factly,  “I  just want to play with her as she is so cute.” I had another chuckle and just resigned myself to choosing my battles and this was definitely not one for my choosing.

It is indeed amazing how children can bring us back to the reality of what should be important in our lives. With their childlike trust they remind us that it is never wise to get so worked up and stressed out about things and we should employ this same childlike trust in our Heavenly Father to see us through difficult times. It’s just easier said than done though, because we often do feel that we have given God our cares, only to find that we have taken them up again, as we still continue to worry and be stressed/

In the meantime though, I am grateful for laughter as it is the thin thread that keeps us from going over the edge from time to time.

BE ENCOURAGED ALL!!

GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS – Feature 18 – “You raise me up.”

Many nights I wake up at about 2:30 am and find that I cannot go back to sleep. Since the birth of our daughter it is as if my body feels that 4 to 5 hours of sleep is adequate. Anyway, one such night last week, after not being able to go back to sleep, I began scanning the television channels to see if there was anything worth watching at that time of the night. I stumbled across a talk show where they were featuring backup singers. What came out of this program was that these people, do desire to be in the limelight but they do not have the courage to and so it is those who possess this courage, are the ones in the spotlight. These individuals are then forced to just be the support while those who they assist shine. They featured about three sets of backup singers who support a lot of big name artistes. Towards the end of the show the host gave them their time in the spotlight and they were so good, you wonder why they do not have their own recording contracts.

So it is in our daily lives, there are persons whose shoulders we stand on, who allow us to be all that we can be. They, in their small corner, make it their duty to do everything to ensure that we shine. The rank and file workers in an organization who keep the organization operating at its best, those friends who are always there to encourage us, to push us along. The spouses who strive to bring out the best in each other, the teachers who want to see every student in their class do well, the parents who deny themselves just to ensure that their children have the best opportunities so that they can at least live a little better life than they did.

What I find with me is that I am at my best when I am working in the background. I will be honest and say that I do wish at times that I could be in the spotlight and have tried on occasions but find that I do not operate at my best there and so I have to be satisfied with others standing on my shoulders to be the best that they can be. You might say I am cheating myself, but I do see their success as mine too and that is adequate for me.

I would like therefore to use this space today to offer my gratitude and to honour all the unsung heroes around us. Just know that the spotlight would be overcrowded if all of us were jostling for a spot there.

Many nights I saw you……….

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hand.”
Psalm 127: 3 & 4

“Many nights I saw you, I held you, you looked at me,
My heart melted, you were so real.
I woke from my sleep, you were just a dream…….”

The above is an excerpt from a poem I wrote to my daughter when I was pregnant with her. The rest of the poem went on to say how I waited long and anxiously to see her and she finally came, but sadly she was taken back from me because God wanted her more as she was just too beautiful. He wanted her to shine from heaven as one of his brightest stars. The poem is entitled “Heaven’s Star.” For our son, I wrote a song entitled, “It was worth it my love.”

When I was struggling with infertility, I had many, many, dreams of my baby. Some of them were so real that I could not wait to wake up and see my baby and when I awoke, I would actually be looking around for them. When I realized that it was just a dream, I actually became annoyed that I had awoken. I often tried to remember what these babies actually looked like but I could not remember anything of how they looked. All I could remember was that all the dreams had one thing in common, I felt so happy, so triumphant and so relieved.

Were these dreams telling something? Telling me to take heart and one day we would overcome infertility. That one day, I would hold my baby and my heart would melt, thinking that I am one of the most fortunate and blessed persons in the world.

I know this is not unique to just me, nor am I the only fortunate one to have had these dreams, many or all of you who are struggling with infertility is having them. I believe they have a place in this whole process as I do believe they make things a little easier to deal with, at least they did for me because when I had those dreams, I woke up, (even though disappointed that they are not real), feeling a little lighter and they did give me something to hold on to, even if it was just for a day. They also gave me new energy to fight on thinking that one day I would wake up and realize that it is not just a dream anymore but a reality.

So many more dreams to you. Chances are one day you too won’t have to dream anymore, you’ll wake up to realize that your dreams have now turned into a reality.

All the best to you and keep clinging to hope.

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