In a rut, counting blessings can be hard

Kaity Holtman

This weekend was gorgeous, wasn’t it? I mean, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.

All Sam and I wanted was to be outside all day, every day.

And for the most part, we were.

But darn it, for some reason, the laundry, dishes, and cleaning still needed to be done in amongst the nice weather.

No fair.

When all we wanted to do was go outside and play, there was still work to be done inside.

And while I was picking up piles of stuff that collect on the counters and near the door over, and over, and over again, I just decided I was so sick of doing the same things every weekend.

It’s times like this when I just want to start throwing everything away.

I don’t, usually, but I want to.

Cups, jackets, mail, shoes, etc. The list goes on, but at the moment we set it down, we don’t think about how much it all collects so quickly.

Laundry, dishes, cleaning – those are all things that will never go away.

It can feel like we can never get ahead, just doing the same things day in and day out.

And I don’t know about the rest of you, but the repetition of it all can just get plain old sometimes, especially when I think about the fact that I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.

And after getting all worked up about the whole concept of constantly doing these things, I had to literally force myself to start counting my blessings.

I’m beyond blessed to have my husband and son to clean up after.

These messes we make happen because we are living life, and I wouldn’t trade mine for the world.

We are blessed to have a roof over our heads.

Blessed to have all of these clothes on our back.

Blessed to have food to eat.

Blessed to have the conveniences and technology that allow me to take care of all of these things.

Blessed to have family and friends that help keep us too busy to do nothing but clean.

The list goes on.

Tim Crowley, a facilitator in my Leadership Northwest Missouri course, charges us all regularly to count our blessings the moment we wake up every morning.

And he’s right. A moment of giving thanks and talking to God before we do anything else can make a world of difference.

It takes training, and I’m still not very good at it.

Usually, my thoughts are more like “morning already?,” or “five more minutes,” or “what day is it?”

Starting the day counting our blessings takes conscious effort, but it is possible. I should probably ask my husband to remind me.

“Morning. Positive thoughts. Wake me up when you’re done,” would be fine with me.

It’s not always about having things to be thankful for, but being thankful for what we have.

While the material things get in the way of life, they aren’t what life is about.

We just have to deal with them, get them over with, and appreciate what they represent.

They represent blessings, even if they don’t always feel like blessings.

Kaity Holtman is the Agriculture Editor for the Maryville Daily Forum.