Gratitude

I work for a state agency doing “case” work and “cases” get read by a senior worker; not all cases but a random draw. I have always learned a great deal from these “readings”; especially when I was a new worker. I found it no different than when I was doing quarterly reports for the FCC and our director of compliance would look them over before they were submitted. If she found something she didn’t quite like she’d correct every instance so there would be no mistaking what she meant. Granted it was annoying but it insured that every instance would be corrected. Back to case readings, when we combined offices due to the closing of “service centers” to save the state money and annoying the clients we had new senior workers reading our cases. There was one who changed her mind from case to case and week to week on what she considered an error, if one week I put for example the sky was blue she’d want a correction to the sky was aqua, the next week I’d make sure the sky was aqua and she’d want it blue. I could never win, I’d eventually gotten my fill of this pettiness and had it out with her. Over the years our roles have changed a bit and she no longer “reads” my case work and I like to think we have become friends. About 2 years ago she received a devastating medical diagnosis but she still is a pit bull when it comes to reading cases! As with a state agency there is always change and next week we are moving offices and it appears that she will occupy my current space, she was concerned about the temperature and I called her in to “feel” what the room was like with the A/C running. I don’t remember how it came up but I said something about thinking about her disease as a blessing, she smiled and said yes, I have to have an attitude of gratitude.Wow, I thought, she has changed and so have I. It's hard to be grateful of difficult times; I have realized that over the past year and I'm glad I'm not alone!

For all the tears and smiles, I am so grateful for this woman who has at time made my life at work miserable. She has softened a tiny bit and has become more humane plus she has a cat, so she can’t be all bad. I love how bits of gratitude find their way to be seen and remembered. 

Football

Ok, playoff are underway and that means the season will come to and end on Sunday, February 3rd. I have to be honest I'm not much of a football fan, the main reason I like the start of football season is usually it means the start of the hockey season isn't far off, well, here it is January 13th and there is still no hockey season, oh yeah, it's suppose to start soon for a shorten season. I have watched football this weekend, the wild card games and playoffs, and all in all the games have been pretty good even if my favorite teams and favorite qb aren't advancing.

Of course the best part of this weekend was the fact that over in Daytona race cars were on the track, yes NASCAR is my sport of choice but if you know me you already know that!

Weather?

Here it is 12 days into the new year and still considered WINTER!!! Why are the temperatures in the low 80's??? What is Mother Nature's problem? Yes, I live in Florida, a normally warmer state then the other 49 with the exception of Hawaii, but this is insane! I would really like more than one cold day in winter.

2nd Friday of the year

I was talking to a friend today about first impressions and how accurate are they really…we were laughing because I met him when he was in a training class and was sent out in “the field” to observe what he’d be doing after training, to be honest I wasn’t impressed, he was smart but he was trying too hard. Over the years we have become very good friends, he’s someone I can laugh with and it’s amazing how much we have in common.

He’s the perfect example of not going with your first impression but giving yourself time to really get to know someone. It’s just like the old adage, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, allow yourself time or you could miss out on a wonderful friendship.

breathing a sigh of relief...

About 10 minutes ago I was in a state of pure and simple panic...my usb drive decided not to work. I never thought about having a back up drive for my back up drive!

I did think about all the pictures and "stories" on this little pink device and my heart stopped, I have blog ideas galore waiting for inspiration, pictures, holy cow, do I have pictures and ones I could never replace. And my stories, my babies, these characters I developed and I just started a major rewrite on one of my favorites...

I guess I need to talk to my favorite computer guru and get his opinion...

January 9th

If you've read this blog before you know I love books, I spent most of 2011 blogging weekly about some of my favorites. Two of my favorite authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child created one of my favorite characters in the world, Aloysius Xingú Leng Pendergast.
 
The mysterious FBI Special Agent first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, Relic, and in its sequel Reliquary, before assuming the protagonist role in The Cabinet of Curiosities.

I am currently reading the 2nd book in the "Helen" trilogy, Cold Vengeance. The authors never fail to leave me amazed and I can't wait to read the final "Helen" book, Two Graves.

I will admit he can be annoying but he's never dull. And if he isn't your cup of tea they have several other great books and wonderful characters...

Gratitude

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Gratitude (disambiguation).

"Thank" redirects here. For the protein symbol THANK, see THANK.

For other uses, see Thank You.

For other uses, see Thanks.

Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions,^[1] and has been considered extensively by moral philosophers such as Adam Smith.^[2] The systematic study of gratitude within psychology only began around the year 2000, possibly because psychology has traditionally been focused more on understanding distress rather than understanding positive emotions. However, with the advent of the positive psychology movement,^[3] gratitude has become a mainstream focus of psychological research.^[4] The study of gratitude within psychology has focused on the understanding of the short term experience of the emotion of gratitude (state gratitude), individual differences in how frequently people feel gratitude (trait gratitude), and the relationship between these two aspects.

Many moons ago Sarah Ban Breathnach introduced Simple Abundance and the Gratitude Journal. I faithfully kept that journal recording 5 things everyday that I was grateful for. I decided that this year I would do something similar on Facebook, beginning on January 1st I posted a quote about being grateful and then in the comments I wrote one thing I am grateful for. Now that I've done one weeks worth of quotes I decided to share them in my blog.

1/1/13

Practice gratitude every day, it won't take long before gratitude is your natural state of being. It is one of the greatest secrets to life. Rhonda Byrne, Day 1 of 365

1/2/13

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude…Friedrich Nietzsche, Day 2 of 365

1/3/13

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

1/4/13

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”

― Maya Angelou, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

1/5/13

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

1/6/13

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

― John F. Kennedy

1/7/13

    “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” — Lionel Hampton