Count Your Cursings

Hello. This is a geode:

Life is like a geode. When the geode is examined too shallowly, it’s just a bleak rock. Break it open, though, and look closer at it. You’ll realize that it’s a remarkable object that possesses much beauty.

Read on.

Mankind’s current mortal generations live in times that are considered by many as dark, dirty, and dreary, both figuratively and literally. Hard times abound. People disappoint. Some people hurt your feelings, whether intentionally or not. Sometimes you just want to go home, find a corner in your favorite room, roll yourself up into a ball, and cry. It’s healthy to let yourself have a good cry. But once you’re done with your crying session, do the simple exercise that I like to call “Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings).”

Once upon a time in the month of August, I was overwhelmed with stresses and heartaches that never seemed to quit multiplying. I had called my mom, cried practically hysterically to her, and vented out all frustrations into the ear that lay upon her cellphone. After the phone call, I tried to calmly think calm thoughts for a few minutes. That decision to meditate was one of the best ideas I ever had.

My conscience told me to count my blessings. I took that prompting a step further and recorded my cursings first, so I could define the full inventory of stuff that was making me ornery. As soon as I finished the cursings, I moved on to recording the list of stuff that made me smile.

The results: “bad list” was nine items long; “good list” was 53 items long. Fifty-three. Nearly six times as long as scrawny lil’ “bad list.” How was that even possible, when almost all aspects of my life seemed utterly awful at that point in time?

Life is like a geode. Dig deeper into everything happening to you by getting into the swing of counting your blessings. Do so, and you will have embarked on a pleasantly slippery slope. As for me, when I cracked open my geode, I couldn’t dam the river of happy memories to save my life! Happy memory after happy memory after happy memory.

(Today I played "Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings)" again, and the counts were 51 good, 3 bad. SEVENTEEN times more good than bad! Can you top that!?) 

TODAY'S PEACEMAKING POINTER IS: Play "Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings)" if you're feeling blue. Chances are your "bad list" will be blown out of the water by your "good list," and sunshine will drown out your blues.