Why gratitude is everything…especially now

We are all going through hard times. Every one of us has their own issues to deal with, and the Coronavirus and social distancing, and in some places, total lockdown, is adding strain to some already-strained lives.

In just the last 24 hours, I have been dealing with a migraine combined with a cold combined with homeschooling an 8-year-old combined with what sometimes feels like non-stop meltdowns from the toddler. The website I am trying to build for my business is literally doing my head in, I am constantly being interrupted by little people and have not had more than 10 minutes to myself in I-can’t remember-how-long. I sneak off to the toilet to just be able to shut the door on the world for a minute or two and gather my thoughts, and without a doubt the sound of ‘Mummy!’ will penetrate the door and find me. Every. Time.

The website platform I am using has crashed several times and I have lost some of my work. My partner in crime is now sick, and temporarily out of action ( but soldiering on as best he can), we have just discovered that our car tyre has a puncture in it and needs replacing so we now have no car to get to the supermarket for an unknown amount of time (now I am starting to see a need to stock up on toilet paper and long-life milk), oh and I think I have broken my toe.

We also have two pretty big issues that we are dealing with on top of all of this that I won’t go into right now.

I am not writing all this as a complaint. It is not to get things off my chest either. What struck me today as I started to head down the ‘why us?’ spiral and began to feel sorry for myself is that we truly do have so much to be grateful for. Life is in a permanent state of change. This means that we will not be living under these trying conditions forever. It is what it is and once we accept life as it currently is (it doesn’t mean we need to like everything, but acceptance is crucial) then we can start to see the beauty around us.

I am so grateful for the incredible medical staff, the supermarket workers, the garbage collectors, the neighbours who smile at us and wave hello from their distant windows, my friends on Facebook who check in from time to time to see how things are going. My morning coffee. That third piece of chocolate I managed to sneak in while the kids were distracted. The list goes on.

We have a choice. To live in fear or to live in gratitude. You cannot do both.

I choose gratitude and I am so thankful for this morning’s wake up call.