Making Lemonade and All That

When life hands you lemons…just know that you won't have to worry about kidney stones.  I learned that the hard way.  Lemonade and me?  BFF's.

The emotional roller coaster of my life is starting to plummet dip.  Things, they are a'changin', and of course I'm going to be all kinds of vague on the blog.  But life?  It is getting rough around the edges.

Whenever I get to this mental point - which is to say stressed to the max, waking up at all hours of the night and puttering around the house - I make necessary physical changes that have proven themselves useful time and time again.  I've written about them before: breathing, breathing, breathing/very little caffeine/very little sugar/working out as much as possible within a realistic work schedule/giving myself as many choices as I can.  (And also, about the working out, I'm starting slowly in order to rouse my poor muscles out of their 24-month hibernation.)

I also try to use thanksgiving as a discipline, as a coping mechanism, if you will.  The joy of the Lord is my strength.  A grateful heart is a smart and humble response to a loving God, especially when I fall short in so many other spiritual areas these days.  Not only do I find joy in God Himself, but also in the myriad of blessings He has given me, in all sorts of forms - obvious and unexpected.  Even trials can be blessings in disguise, and I don't mean that in a Hallmark Channel kind of way - I speak from experience. 

And what perfect timing this is, as Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  It is a danger, getting caught up in blessings rather than the One who bestows them.  I'm not trying to put good things on a pedestal; I'm trying to be mindful of just how good I have it, when it feels like I'm circling the drain. The truth is that most of us are so blessed that our lives could be turned upside down and we would still come out ahead.  I want to remember that. 

So here are some things that make me happy, and therefore cause me to be thankful.  What about you?