An attitude of gratitude
One lesson I've learned in the last year or two is how deal with life's ups & downs (umm, mostly downs) better. I've tried to go with the flow & really, just deal with it. I've come to the understanding, the real understanding, that crap happens. Life is all about the good & the bad & what you make of it.

Well folks, crap is about to hit the fan...starting tomorrow morning. And like always, it's more than one thing. It's everything all at once. Oddly enough, I feel slightly prepared for it because I knew ahead of time that all of these things were coming to a head this week.

I've also found that in these times of "life crap", I usually focus on what's wrong. Not what's right. This also tends to carry over into the "recovery of life crap" time & there's a cycle of focusing on the What's Wrong, the What We Don't Have & the How Hard It Is.

Yesterday afternoon, I gained a little more perspective. I sat down with Logan in the living room after he woke up from his afternoon nap. He was being perfect, sitting quietly & eating his goldfish crackers while I watched Oprah. This episode happened to have a segment about pajamas.

Now, Motherhood has turned me into an emotional, blubbering sap (this is a post for another day, for sure). I've found that I get choked up & teary at the dumbest things. Somebody talks about their birth story-I've got a handful of tissue. Some one mentions a victory or struggle- I start to sniffle. God forbid I hear about something devastating that's happening in someones life because I'll be crying right there with them. It's almost comical now, but I digress...

This segment was about a woman who found her calling in life. She donates pajamas to children in group homes & shelters, because this is a life luxury that most of these children have never experienced. Most have never been read a bedtime story while in their fuzzy PJ's, had a bed time routine & experienced the joy of being tucked in.

This absolutely broke my heart.

Of course upon watching this, I got choked up. Then as always, through the magic that is Oprah, she & her audience were able to pay it forward, donating thousands upon thousands of pajamas to this woman's cause. And of course, the lump in my throat turned into tears.

The reason for this emotion was two part. First, it was for the sorrow of the children who don't have the same joys & experiences that we do. Second, it was for the gratitude that Logan does have fuzzy pajamas. That he gets fun bath times, baby massages & stories, while getting to experience the joy of being tucked in. He loves to be tucked in. He giggles & smiles & thinks it's the most fun thing ever while I get him "snug as a bug in a rug".

I think I spend way too much time focusing on what we've given up, what we've sacrificed & what we don't have rather than focusing on what we do have. We have healthy food to eat, we are healthy, we take walks to the park, we play with friends every week & we have fuzzy pajamas. While we may not have a lot, we have a lot to be thankful for.

So, during this week of "life crap", I'm going to be thinking about pajamas.