Girassol

Random Things I'm Grateful For: Monday

Monday's entry in the list of Random Things I'm Grateful For (see my last post for a complete explanation) is...  "Something in my house."

The first thing that came to mind was my bed.  Probably because I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night, so it was at the forefront of my mind.

My bed, like nearly all of my furniture, is a hand-me-down from family members.  A couple years ago, my Nana moved into a smaller place and passed on a ton of furniture.  The bed in question spent the last few years in my sister's condo, but last December when she got married, she passed it on to me -- along with the awesome dresser that goes with it.

I love having a nice piece of furniture that belonged to my grandmother.  If I were purchasing a bed frame, I would never have picked a four-poster for myself -- too traditional, and I'm not a fan of footboards.  But I love the "bubbly" look of this bed.  I think it has a whimsical look that I am rather fond of. 

My favorite thing about my bed is the actual bedding.  Last summer when I moved into this place, I knew I wanted a red bedroom, so I painted it that color, before I even had anything else picked out for the room.  One day I was out shopping with my cousin and we went into a Bed, Bath, & Beyond and I saw this set in their clearance section for next to nothing, and I had to have it.  Purple and red are my favorite colors, and the red was an exact match to the red paint I had chosen for the room (which, as anyone who has ever decorated with red can tell you, is next to miraculous!).  The stripes on the comforter are made of brocades and satins, and the most delicious deep purple velvet.  The cream colored stripes matched the lamp I already had.  I already owned a set of red sheets and a set of purple sheets.  This bedding was MEANT to be mine!

I've always wanted a bed that feels luxurious.  For a single Mormon gal, that is of the utmost importance -- since there's nobody sleeping in the bed but me, I might as well do whatever else I can to make bedtime something to look forward to!

Another great memory of my bed comes from the day I moved into this little place.  I was downstairs unloading the U-Haul and ordering all the helpers around.  It was the 4th of July and hot as Hades.  I was NOT looking forward to cleaning, unpacking, and setting up house all by myself in the sweltering heat after everyone left!  Before taking off, though, my mom called me upstairs.  I dragged my butt up there, and there was Mom standing in my new bedroom, absolutely glowing with pride.  Mom, my grandmother, and my aunt had spent the morning setting up my bed, putting all the bedding on, sweeping, and cleaning the windows and blinds in my new bedroom so I would have a comfortable and clean place to rest at the end of the day.  It looked so pretty, and I was so touched that I totally started bawling. 

I'm grateful for my bed because it is my place of refuge, relaxation, and rejuvenation.  It gives me a connection to family, and is a perfect reflection of me.

Inspiration

So, ever since my last post I have been looking for something to say that will move that whining down the page a little bit.  Curiously, posting about all the reasons I have to NOT write has caused me to reflect on all the other reasons I have TO write.  Yesterday's lesson during our women's meeting at church provided me with an idea.  The lesson was on gratitude -- on not just being thankful for the obvious, big blessings were have (food, shelter, family, job), but on all the little things that make life more comfortable, more pleasant, and more fun.  And also on finding reasons to be grateful for challenges and annoyances, which could easily have turned into a horrible cliché but, thankfully (HA!) didn't.

To begin the lesson, the teacher had us number 1-7 on a little piece of paper, and we were to write down the first thing that came to mind when she named a category.  After writing something down for each category, she had us label each item with a letter, which turned out to be the first letters of the days of the week.  Her suggestion to us was that each day of the coming week, we focus on the assigned item throughout the day and find something about it that we can be grateful for.  We never shared the items out loud, and nobody ever saw them.  I wondered to myself if anyone would actually do this.  And then I thought, "Well, I'll do it."

As I sat there in the class, my mind wandered back to my BYU days when I was living in an apartment with this girl named Beth, who had just returned from serving a mission in Spain's Canary Islands.  I was preparing to serve a mission myself at the time, and I really looked up to Beth.  She suggested doing an apartment prayer each night, and at first I was kind of skeptical about it because I'm not terribly fond of fake affection and spirituality.  I barely knew these roommates, and I didn't think I'd feel comfortable praying with them every night.  I didn't want to feel forced to go be spiritual if I was studying.  I didn't want to have to pretend I was as close to them as, say, my family. 

But Beth really knew what she was doing.  Each night at 10:00, whoever was home gathered in the living room for prayer.  The first night we did this, Beth told us about how as a missionary she and her companions always shared their favorite part of the day with one another prior to praying.  It started out kind of awkwardly, but within a short week or so, we were all having a great time with new this little tradition!  We roommates were becoming close friends.  Even better, I found myself becoming more mentally aware of the good things that happened to me each day.  I found myself writing them down so that I wouldn't forget them when prayer time came.  We got to the point where we were each sharing three or four "favorite parts" each night, and prayer time was stretching into almost a half an hour on particularly good days.  If friends were over, they joined us.  Several of them started doing the same thing with THEIR roommates.  It became a mini epidemic within that apartment complex during that semester.

When I left the apartment and went on a mission, I did the same thing with my companions.  When I look back on those several years of my life, I remember them as a really good period.  I honestly believe that much of that is due to the fact that I was consciously looking for the positive in my life.  I allowed myself, forced myself, to see the everyday blessings I was given.  There were a lot of tough times during those years, of course, but I can truly say that not a day went by that I didn't have at least one good thing to say.

So, fast forward to 2007.  The last few years of my life have been immensely stressful and complicated.  Job pressure.  School pressure.  Moving.  Being single.  Dating.  Breaking up.  Being single again.  Moving again.  And again.  And again.  New job pressure.  More school pressure.  No clean laundry.  Repeat ad nauseum.  It's time to start focusing on the positive and the gratitude again.  Not only do I feel that I need it for my own well-being, but the world can always use a little more positive vibe.

As a start, each day this week, I will be posting the item I came up with during yesterday's Church lesson, and a bit on why I'm grateful for it.  Here's the list of coming attractions, some of which will not be easy to be thankful for!

Monday:  Something in my house
Tuesday: Something that gives me trouble
Wednesday:  Something I know of but have never seen
Thursday:  A food
Friday:  A color
Saturday:  My least favorite feature of my body