Choose Your (Gr)Attitude

I'm all about alliteration the last couple of days. Yesterday was Sushi Saturday. It was great of course. I don't know what happened to me in the last year, but all of the sudden I'm just fearless when it comes to eating raw seafood. And I freaking love it. I really believe that there needs to be a certain level of adventure mode when it comes to food. How about a for instance?

For instance, last Tuesday I went out to lunch with a couple of friends. I didn't know what I felt like eating, but I wasn't feeling so much Daphne's Greek Cafe for lunch. However, I really strongly believe that if someone is going to be the limiting party when it comes to eating out (i.e. you're being picky), then you should be providing a list of alternatives. Being that I didn't have any other suggestions, I acquiesced and consented to eating at Daphne's. And it turned out to be the perfect meal. I couldn't have been more pleased about my meal that day. Seriously, just deciding that you're going to make the best of your situation makes all the difference in the world as to how pleasant it is to be around you, and also how much you end up enjoying whatever it is that you're doing/eating. Adventure mode works on so many levels.

As a follow up to the Mothers Who Know post, while in Welfare meeting this morning with the Branch Presidency, the High Councilman assigned to our branch mentioned that the First Presidency decreed that all stakes and wards should put a special emphasis on that particular talk in their local congregations. Apparently, that was a talk that was carefully concocted in conjunction with the aid of the First Presidency, and not something Sister Beck just decided to do on a whim. I LOVE that the church is so responsive. So how about a big in your face to all those people who signed that petition?

Tonight we had a super fireside and Mary Ellen Edmunds was the guest speaker. I can't tell you all just how much I adore her. Before tonight, I've only read her book You Can Never Have Enough Of What You Don't Need and a couple of other talks, but I just love everything that I've come across penned by her. The subject of her talk largely follows what she wrote in the book that I just mentioned.

Sister Edmunds is an utter delight. She speaks and writes the exact same way and it's just so plain and genuine. I just love her. She made the point that joy doesn't usually precede gratitude, it usually follows it. Then she listed off 25 items that the audience should be able to answer yes or no to:

1. I have electricity where I live


2. I've noticed something beautiful in the weather or the world where I live, in the last 24 hours


3. I am a child of God


4. I have enough to eat


5. I have forgiven someone in the past year


6. I can read


7. I voted for the plan of salvation


8. I have laughed in the last 24 hours


9. I can think of 10 people who know me well, and who love me very much


10. I have witnessed a miracle in the last year


11. I live within a few hours of a temple


12. I have a bed


13. I have experienced sacrifice in the last year


14. At least 10 things have been invented during my lifetime that I either use often, or love having


15. I have communicated with God in the last 24 hours


16. There is something that I am currently looking forward to


17. My family has at least 5 traditions that I appreciate


18. I don't have to boil my drinking water


19. I've said a prayer in the last week only giving thanks and not asking for anything


20. I know at least several of the following acronyms (she lists off a bunch, but here are a few) - LDS, BYU, MIA, USC, FBI, LDSS, CES, UCLA, CIA...E-I-E-I-O...she threw in a ton of cute jokes. And then would giggle hysterically. You'd love her to if you saw her.


21. ...I don't know this one...


22. There is at least one thing that I do well


23. Within the past week I've had a wonderful experience reading the scriptures


24. I've said or done something kind for someone in the last week


25. Jesus is my Savior.

If you can say yes to all 25 items, then you should be well on your way to being grateful. She shared several stories of times where she has lived in destitute places. I won't really go into that. I'm just going to bullet point other ideas she brought up:

• So often thoughts on gratitude can really be just summed up as a theory of relativity


• From President Kimball - We need to view our own wants in light of others needs


• From another Church President, something to the effect of, The key to happiness is not so much in wanting, but being...as in being content with the things allotted unto us.


• Cultivate a spirit of gladness in your homes - and then she joked, but I only have an apartment, or a studio, or insert any number of things that we don't have


• We spend money we don't have to impress people we don't like, who never end up coming over anyway


• You can never get enough of what you don't need (from the book, obviously)


• Wanting less is a better blessing than having more (also from the book, not so obviously)


• Live simply so that others may simply live


• Appreciate more than you expect

And then two requests by the good sister -thank Heavenly Father for something that you've forgotten about in your daily prayers, and find some course corrections from the previous General Conference.

You know what I think is so interesting? About a year ago I went through a phase of just wanting so much. I would go to sales and I would totally covet things. It's so unflattering to admit this now, but I really did. I wanted a big TV, furniture, and all of these things to put in a place that I don't even have. Dave can totally verify this because I'd send him texts letting him know that this or that was going on, and what amazing deals there were. And I don't know what has happened in the last couple of months, but I really could care less about all of that stuff. I mean really truly. I really have no idea what the catalyst was in my change of heart, but I'm grateful to not be in that place because it really did get me nowhere. It only caused me to feel anxiety about what things I didn't have, and discontent with the things that I did have. Maybe it was just reading that book. I really don't know.

Are there things that you want that are making you be an ungrateful person? Do you want a bigger television? Your own home? Maybe a new car? Or maybe you have these things but you want bigger and better. So often we just get into this trap where we feel like if only we had this or that, then we could be happy. Do you really think that's the case? I got a new car last year and I really thought that was what I needed. Granted, I am grateful not to be driving a bright red beetle anymore, but at the same time...my quality of life really has not improved one bit. And I've thought much more often about how nice it would be to not have a car payment than that I like this car that much more than the last one. Even that hyper-feminine car that I used to have.

I know that I have a long way to go with respect to all of this. I am just grateful that when I look back, I can know that I'm at least a little better off then I was a year ago at this time. Sometimes we don't realize that we really are making progress, even if it feels so small at times. In writing this post, it makes me think of the last lines of this Robert Frost poem. Take what you will from it:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Me again. I do have miles to go before I sleep. Don't you love poetry? Anyway...sorry if you've checked here and I haven't updated the blog. It's not for lack of ideas, just lack of time. I'll be good this week. But really, truly consider those things. I think with the holiday season it is really inspiring me to want to get outside of myself more. I hope we can all make those course corrections that would make us a better people. Goodnight.